Antología para la unidad académica Evolución de la Metodología en la Enseñanza de lenguas.

Licenciatura en Inglés, modalidad a distancia.

Primer bloque del segundo semestre.

Mtra. Martha Lorena Obermeier Pérez

Enero, 2013

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Índice

Pg.

Introducción 3

Programa del curso 4

Learning theories 7

Enfoques y métodos en la enseñanza de lenguas en un percurso hacia la

competencia comunicativa: ¿dónde entra la gramática?

16

The grammar translation method 25

Total physical response 29

Linguística y enseñanza de la lengua 40

Sugestopedia, pedagogía desugestiva 45

Lexical approach activities 50

Learner centeredness in teaching English as a foreign language 63

Advantages and disadvantages of using computer network technology in

language teaching.

74

Bibliografía 80

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Introducción

En esta antología se presentan materiales de apoyo para las unidades de la unidad

académica Evolución de la metodología en la enseñanza de lenguas. Esta unidad académica

se imparte en el primer bloque del segundo semestre de la Licenciatura en Inglés. El

objetivo de esta unidad académica es que el alumno reconozca las diferentes metodologías

que se han utilizado para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, así como sus ventajas y

desventajas.

Los materiales que se presentan en esta antología presentan información sobre las

diferentes metodologías. Esta antología es complementaria a los materiales que se

presentan en el curso, pues plantean actividades, ventajas y desventajas de cada

metodología.

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Programa del curso: Evolución de la metodología en la enseñanza de lengua.

Presentación:

Esta unidad académica pertenece al eje de Pedagogía, ayuda al estudiante a conocer los métodos, su evolución; las transformaciones en los enfoques sucesivos que marcaron la didáctica de las lenguas.

Propósito general:

Al finalizar el curso, el estudiante tendrá una visión general e histórica de la evolución de la metodología en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y de los principales enfoques metodológicos actualmente implicados en su enseñanza.

Competencias genéricas:

La habilidad que debe poseer el estudiante es la de desarrollar una visión general e histórica de la evolución de la metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras.

Competencias específicas:

Evalúa metodologías para facilitar los procesos de aprendizaje.

Contenido:

Unidad 1 Learning Theories in Education: Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism

1.1 The Three Dominant Learning Theories

Unidad 2 A Brief History of Language Teaching

2.1 A Milestone in the Development of Language Teaching Methods

2.2 The Grammar Translation Method and the Direct Method

Unidad 3 Methodology of Language Teaching in the 20th Century

3.1 The Situational Language Teaching Method, the Total Physical Response Method and the Audiolingual Method

3.2 The Community Language Learning and The Communicative Language Teaching

3.3 The Silent Way and Suggestopedia

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3.4 The Natural Approach and the Lexical Approach

Unidad 4 Current Trends in Language Teaching

4.1 Learner Centered Approach and Task Based Learning

4.2 Experiential Learning and the Influence of Technology in Language Education

Resultados de aprendizaje:

Desarrolla una visión general e histórica de la evolución de la metodología.

Aplica los principales enfoques metodológicos de la enseñanza.

Evalúa metodologías para facilitar los procesos de aprendizaje.

Estrategias didácticas:

Se utilizará una metodología en la cual los alumnos se involucran activamente a través del trabajo en equipo realizando actividades como:

Proyectos individuales

Presentaciones en power point

Documentos es Word

Escuchar textos provenientes de los medios de comunicación: radio, televisión, cine

Video grabaciones de conversaciones en pares y grupos

Seguir instrucciones

Participar en conversaciones de tipo formal e informal

Completar formularios y cuestionarios

Producir carteles

Escribir finales de cuentos o sucesos

Escribir cartas personales, notas, mensajes breves, correos electrónicos y un artículo en la gaceta escolar

Explorar temas, cuadros sinópticos y mapas conceptuales

Organizar ideas: idea principal, oraciones de apoyo, de ejemplificación, etc

Reconocer la estructura textual de un discurso oral o escrito

Identificar palabras claves que indiquen la naturaleza del discurso oral o escrito

Identificar el tema central de un diálogo, exposición oral o texto

Inferir connotaciones, actitudes e intenciones

Parafrasear, usar redes semánticas o sinónimos

Lecturas guiadas

Observación de videos

Transcripciones fonéticas de palabras tanto del inglés como el español

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Grabación de oraciones

Recursos didácticos:

Computadora, acceso a internet, libros, artículos digitales, chat, rúbricas, portafolio digital, DVD, CD.

Técnicas de Enseñanza/aprendizaje:

Investigaciones

Estudio de casos

Comparaciones

Actividades a desarrollar:

Reporte de lectura

Investigaciones de temas específicos

Resúmenes, mapas conceptuales, síntesis y reseñas sobre lecturas

Acreditación:

Nota: el estudiante se considera competente cuando haya cumplido con el 60% de los criterios de evaluación.

Participación en foros de discusión 10%Resumen de los distintos enfoques o métodos 30%3 exámenes parciales 30%Examen final 30% __________

100%

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Learning Theory: Historical Overview. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.answers.com/topic/learning-theory-historical-overview [Last Accessed 28 de Enero del 2013]

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Learning theories are so central to the discipline of psychology that it is impossible to

separate the history of learning theories from the history of psychology. Learning is a basic

psychological process, and investigations of the principles and mechanisms of learning

have been the subject of research and debate since the establishment of the first

psychological laboratory by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzeig, Germany, in 1879. Learning is

defined as a lasting change in behaviors or beliefs that results from experience. The ability

to learn provides every living organism with the ability to adapt to a changing environment.

Learning is an inevitable consequence of living - if we could not learn, we would die.

The evolution of learning theories may be thought of as a progression from broad theories

developed to explain the many ways that learning occurs to more specific theories that are

limited in the types of learning they are designed to explain. Learning theories are broadly

separated into two perspectives. The first perspective argues that learning can be studied by

the observation and manipulation of stimulus-response associations. This is known as

the behaviorist perspective because of its strict adherence to the study of observable

behaviors. This perspective was first articulated in 1913 by John Watson, who argued that

psychology should be the study of observable phenomena, not the study of consciousness

or the mind. Watson believed that objective measurement of observable phenomena was

the only way to advance the science of psychology.

The second type of learning theory argues that intervening variables are appropriate and

necessary components for understanding the processes of learning. This perspective falls

under the broad rubric of cognitive learning theory, and it was first articulated by Wilhem

Wundt, the acknowledged "father of psychology," who used introspection as a means of

studying thought processes. Although proponents of these two perspectives differ in their

view of how learning can be studied, both schools of thought agree that there are three

major assumptions of learning theory: (1) behavior is influenced by experience, (2) learning

is adaptive for the individual and for the species, and (3) learning is a process governed by

natural laws that can be tested and studied.

Behavior Theory

The behaviorist perspective dominated the study of learning throughout the first half of the

twentieth century. Behaviorist theories identified processes of learning that could be

understood in terms of the relationships between the stimuli that impinge on organisms and

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the way organisms respond, a view that came to be referred to as S-R theories. A central

process in S-R theories is equipotentiality. Equipotential learning means that learning

processes are the same for all animals, both human and nonhuman. By studying learning in

nonhuman animals, the early behaviorists believed they were identifying the basic

processes that are important in human learning. They also believed that learning could only

be studied by observing events in the environment and measuring the responses to those

events. According to the behaviorists, internal mental states are impossible topics for

scientific inquiry, and thus are not necessary in the study of learning. For behaviorists, a

change in behavior is the only appropriate indicator that learning has occurred. According

to this view, all organisms come into the world with a blank mind, or, more formally,

a tabula rasa (blank slate), on which the environment writes the history of learning for that

organism. Learning, from the behaviorist perspective, is what happens to an organism as a

result of its experiences.

Types of behavioral learning. There are two main types of learning in the behaviorist

tradition. The first is classical conditioning, which is associated with the work of Ivan

Pavlov (1849 - 1936), a Russian physiologist who studied the digestive processes of dogs.

Pavlov noticed that dogs salivated in the absence of food if a particular stimulus was

present that had previously been paired with the presentation of food. Pavlov investigated

the way in which an association between a neutral stimulus (e.g., a lab technician who fed

the dogs), an unconditioned stimulus (food), and an unconditioned reflex (salivation) was

made. Pavlov's classic experiment involved the conditioning of salivation to the ringing of

a bell and other stimuli that were not likely to make a dog salivate without a previously

learned association with food.

In the initial stages of the classical conditioning paradigm, an unconditioned

response (UCR; in this case, salivation) is elicited by the presentation of an unconditioned

stimulus (UCS; in this case, food). If a neutral stimulus (one that does not elicit the UCR,

such as a bell) is paired with the presentation of the UCS over a series of trials, it will come

to elicit a conditioned response (CR; also salivation in this example), even when the UCS

(food) is absent. In the paradigm of classical conditioning, the previously neutral stimulus

(bell) becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), which produces the conditioned response (CR)

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of salivation. In other words, the animal in the experiment learns to associate the bell with

the opportunity to eat and begins to salivate to the bell in the absence of food. It is as

though the animal came to think of the bell as "mouthwatering," although behaviorists

never would have used terms like think of, because thinking is not a directly observable

behavior.

Even though the original work on classical conditioning was performed using nonhuman

animals, this type of learning applies to humans as well. Learned taste aversions and the

development of specific phobias are examples of classical conditioning in humans. For

example, the first time a person hears a drill at a dentist's office, it probably will not cause

the palms to sweat and the heart rate to quicken. However, through the pairing of the sound

with the unpleasant sensation of having a cavity drilled, the sound itself may come to elicit

symptoms of fear and anxiety, even if one is not in the dentist's chair. Feelings of fear and

anxiety may generalize so that the same fear response is elicited by the sight of the dentist's

lab coat or the dental chair.

The second type of learning that is categorized in the behaviorist tradition

is instrumental or operant, conditioning. The main difference between instrumental

conditioning and classical conditioning is that the emphasis is on behavior that is voluntary

(emitted), not reflexive (elicited). The target behavior (e.g., a peck at a lever if one is

studying birds) comes before the conditioning stimulus (e.g., food), as opposed to the

classical model, which presents the conditioning stimulus (e.g., bell) prior to the target

behavior (e.g., salivation).

In the instrumental paradigm, behaviors are learned as a result of their consequences.

Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949) was a pioneer in instrumental conditioning, although he

resisted the label of behaviorist. In his view, the consequences of behaving in a particular

way controlled learning. Behavior was instrumental in obtaining a goal, and the

consequences of the behavior were responsible for the tendency to exhibit (and repeat) a

behavior. Thorndike named this principle of instrumental conditioning the law of effect. He

argued that if a behavior had a positive consequence or led to a satisfying state of being, the

response (behavior) would be strengthened. If, on the other hand, a behavior had a negative

consequence, the response would be weakened. Thorndike developed the principles of

instrumental conditioning using a puzzle box that required that an animal exhibit a certain

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behavior (push a latch) to obtain a goal (open a door for access to food). The animal was

given the opportunity, through trial and error, to discover the required behavior, and the

behavior was reinforced through the opening of the door and access to food. With practice,

the animal decreased the time that it needed to open the door. In the instrumental paradigm,

the animal learned an association between a given situation and the response required to

obtain a goal.

Operant conditioning and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) is credited with

the development of the operant-conditioning paradigm. Similar to instrumental

conditioning, operant conditioning requires that an organism operate on the environment to

achieve a goal. A behavior is learned as a function of the consequences of the behavior,

according to a schedule of reinforcement or punishment. Unlike Thorndike, who used the

concept of reward and satisfying states, Skinner emphasized the influence

of reinforcers. Reinforcers are events that follow a response and increase the likelihood that

the response will be repeated, but they do not suggest the operation of a cognitive

component such as reward (or pleasure). Learning is influenced according to the schedules

of reinforcement in the operant paradigm. Skinner tested the operant theory by carefully

controlling the environment to study behavior and the effects of reinforcement.

According to Skinner, operant conditioning has two laws. The first is the law of

conditioning, which states that reinforcement strengthens the behavior that precedes it,

which makes it more likely that the behavior will be repeated. The second is the law of

extinction, which states that lack of reinforcement for a behavior will make that behavior

less likely to reoccur. Reinforcement consists of two types of events, those that

are positive, which means that when they are presented (e.g., present tasty food) the

probability of a behavior occurring is increased (e.g., press a lever to get the tasty food),

and those that are negative, which means that when they are removed (e.g., stop a loud

sound or painful shock) the probability of a behavior occurring is increased (e.g., press a

lever to stop a loud sound or painful shock). Punishment is defined as an event that

weakens the tendency to make a response. Punishment could involve presenting an aversive

stimulus (e.g., presenting a loud sound or painful shock), or it could involve removing

access to a positive stimulus (e.g., removing a tasty food when a lever is pressed).

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Skinner also experimented with different reinforcement schedules, and he found that

different schedules produced different patterns of responding. Continuous schedules of

reinforcement deliver a reinforcer every time the target behavior is exhibited. These

schedules are effective in establishing the target behavior, but the behavior disappears

quickly if the contingency is not met. Intermittent schedules of reinforcement deliver the

reinforcer on a ratio schedule. For example, an experimenter may decide to reinforce every

fourth response that an animal makes, or a reinforcer may be presented after a fixed or

random time interval. The two types of intermittent schedules that maintain a high rate of

responding and are very resistant to extinction are variable ratio and variable interval

schedules.

Strict adherence to the behaviorist tradition excluded analysis of mental or internal events.

However, Skinner acknowledged the role of thought. He maintained that thought was

caused by events in the environment, and therefore a theory of learning that was concerned

with the influence of the environment was appropriate. Like Pavlov and Thorndike,

Skinner's work was primarily conducted with nonhuman animals, but the principles of

operant conditioning can be applied to humans as well, and they are widely used in

behavior therapy and education.

Cognitive Theories

Although behaviorism was a prolific and dominant theory in learning through the early

decades of the twentieth century, certain concerns and observations led to a resurgence of

interest in cognitive theories of learning. One area of concern was the distinction between

performance and learning - that is, does behaviorism describe the factors that influence

performance of learned behavior, rather than the act of learning itself? Within the

behaviorist literature, evidence of cognitive elements like expectation and categorization

exist. Under an intermittent reinforcement schedule, for example, animals increase their

rate of response immediately before a reinforcer is delivered, thus acting as though they

expect it. Similarly, animals can be trained to distinguish between types of stimuli that

belong to different classes. Learning this type of distinction seems to involve classification,

which is a cognitive process. Most importantly, scientists who studied learning recognized

that the behaviorist theories could not account for all types of learning. Humans and

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animals can learn something without exhibiting what they have learned, meaning that

performance does not always reflect what has been learned.

Cognitive theories grew from the concern that behavior involves more than an

environmental stimulus and a response, whether it be voluntary or reflexive. These theories

are concerned with the influence of thinking about and remembering experiences or

behavior. The assumptions about learning under cognitive theories are not the same as

those for behaviorist theories, because thinking and remembering are internal events.

Inferences about the internal events such as thinking and remembering can be made as long

as they are paired with careful observation of behavior. Cognitive theorists assume that

some types of learning, such as language learning, are unique to humans, which is another

difference between these two perspectives. Cognitive theories also focus on the organism as

an active processor of information that modifies new experiences, relates them to past

experiences, and organizes this information for storage and retrieval. Cognitive

psychologists also recognize that learning can take place in the absence of overt behavior.

Edward Tolman (1886 - 1959) was among the first psychologists to investigate the

organization of behavior and learning. He conducted research in the behaviorist tradition

(objective research on nonhuman species), but he introduced cognitive elements to his

explanation of learning. In Tolman's theory, however, the cognitive elements were based on

observed behavior, not on introspection. He believed that learning involved more than

stimulus and response events; it involved the development of an organized body of

knowledge or expectations about a given situation. Tolman conducted many of his learning

experiments using rats whose learning task was to run through a maze. By varying the

conditions in the maze, he came to the conclusion that learning involved an understanding

about events and their consequences, and this led to purposive, goal-directed behavior.

Tolman emphasized the role of expectation and its reinforcing influence on the repetition of

behavior. He popularized the concept of cognitive maps, which represent an organism's

understanding of the relationship between parts of the environment, as well as the

organism's relationship to the environment.

In a clear break with behaviorists, Tolman noted that reinforcement was not a necessary

component of learning, and that organisms could demonstrate latent learning. Latent

learning is displayed only when an organism is motivated to show it. Tolman was also

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concerned with differences in behavior that might be attributed to internal states of the

organism, a consideration that had been largely rejected by earlier theorists. In identical

learning paradigms, two organisms can show different behaviors based on their different

moods, physiology, or mental states.

Social learning theory. Social learning theory focuses on the sort of learning that occurs in

a social context where modeling, or observational learning, constitutes a large part of the

way that organisms learn. Social learning theorists are concerned with how expectations,

memory, and awareness influence the learning process. Both humans and nonhumans can

learn through observation and modeling. Consider, for example, the acquisition of sign

language by the offspring of language-trained apes who learn to sign by watching their

trained parents. Children learn many behaviors through modeling. A classic experiment by

Albert Bandura (1961) allowed one group of children to observe an adult who aggressively

pounded on a bobo doll (an inflatable doll used for punching), while another group watched

a nonaggressive model and a third group had no model at all. The children who saw the

aggressive adult often modeled (imitated) this behavior when given an opportunity to play

with the same doll. The children who saw the nonaggressive model showed the least

amount of aggressive play when compared to the other two groups. Social learning theorists

retain the behaviorist principles of reinforcement and response contingencies, but they also

extend the area of inquiry for learning to include components of cognitive processing such

as attention, remembering, the processing of information about the environment, and the

consequences of behavior.

Appreciation of the cognitive components of learning focused attention on the need to

remember an experience over various time intervals. Information-processing theories

developed from the cognitive perspective and involve the processes of coding, storing, and

retrieving information about the environment. Information processing is used to study the

processes of memory, a central cognitive component in modern learning theories. Theories

of information processing are a by-product of the computer revolution, and they use the

language of computers (e.g., sequential processing stages, input, output) to describe the

processes of learning and memory. According to a human information-processing

perspective, learning occurs in sequential stages, beginning with encoding information from

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the environment. Encoding of information involves the process by which information from

the environment is translated into usable information. The next stage is storage, which

involves keeping the information that has been encoded. Stored information builds the

"database" of past learning. The final stage in the information-processing approach

is retrieval, which involves accessing the stored information so that it can be used to

perform a task. Organisms are seen as active participants in the information-processing

model. They do not experience the environment passively or simply absorb information,

but instead they seek out certain information, and then manipulate, modify, and store it for

later use.

Learning theories have often been used to provide a guide for education. Earlier

applications were concerned with the use of appropriate rewards and punishment, concerns

that mirrored the major tenets of behaviorist theories. More recently, cognitive perspectives

have shaped the field of education, and there has been more concern with learning methods

that enhance long-term retention and the transfer of information and skills that are learned

in schools to novel problems in out-of-school settings. For example, variability in encoding

(learning material in different ways, e.g. video and text) produces more durable long-term

retention, even though it is a more effortful (and generally lessenjoyable) way to learn. In

addition, students can become better thinkers when they receive specific instruction in

thinking skills - and when the instruction is designed to enhance transfer. Teaching

strategies that enhance transfer include spaced practice (viewing material over time

versus cramming), using a variety of examples so learners can recognize where a concept is

applicable, and practice at retrieval (repeatedly remembering material over time) with

informative feedback.

Learning theories are facing new challenges as people grapple with increases in the amount

of available information that needs to be learned, rapidly changing technologies that require

new types of responses to new problems, and the need to continue learning throughout

one's life, even into old age. Contemporary learning theories supported by empirical

research offer the promise of enhanced learning and improved thinking - both of which are

critical in a rapidly changing and complex world.

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Otero, B. (1998) Enfoques y métodos en la enseñanza de lenguas en un percurso hacia

la competencia comunicativa: ¿Dónde entra la gramática? Centro Virtual Cervantes.

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ENFOQUES Y MÉTODOS EN LA ENSEÑANZA DE LENGUAS EN UN PERCURSO

HACIA LA COMPETENCIA COMUNICATIVA: ¿DÓNDE ENTRA LA GRAMÁTICA?

María de Lourdes Otero Brabo Cruz

Universidad de Estadual Paulista - Campus de Assis

Se presentará una visión de los enfoques y métodos utilizados a lo largo del tiempo en la

enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. Cuando se llegue al enfoque comunicativo se señalarán

las varias tendencias que forman parte de ese movimiento. Al final se observará cómo

funciona la gramática en cada uno de los métodos ya

referidos. El modelo de la operación global de enseñanza de lenguas (Almeida Filho, 1993),

nos servirá de base para la comprensión del func ion amiento de las distintas concepciones

en niveles que se interrelacionan y componen ese proceso.

1. Así era al principio...

Durante siglos aprender lenguas extranjeras era sinónimo de aprender el griego o el latín. A

partir del siglo XVIII y XIX se pasó a enseñar otras lenguas en las escuelas, con un fuerte

influjo del latín, desde entonces visto únicamente como asignatura escolar, ya no como

vehículo de comunicación. Con esto la gramática se

ha vuelto un fin en sí misma, habiendo énfasis, según Brown (1993), en el aprendizaje de

reglas gramaticales, estudio de declinaciones y conjugaciones, traducción y copia de

sentencias descontextualizadas, uso de textos bilingües paralelos y diálogos, siempre

fijándose poco en la pronunciación. Esta metodología con foco en la forma se hizo

conocida como el método gramática-traducción.

2. Suéltame la lengua...

El aprendizaje natural surge al final del siglo XIX con Gouin, Sauveur y Beriitz, que

buscan desarrollar el principio de la interacción oral activa en la lengua meta. Los

principios del aprendizaje de lenguas natural sirven de fundamento al método M L OTERO

B1ÍABO CKUZ directo, que se ha aplicado y aprobado en Francia y Alemania (fines del

siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX), y se ha consagrado en los Estados Unidos con

Sauveur y Maximiliam Berlitz. Berlitz Jo usó en sus escuelas y lo nombró método Berlitz.

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Ese método se basa en mucha interacción oral activa en la lengua meta, poco o ningún

análisis gramatical (el análisis es inductivo), enseñanza diaria de vocabulario nuevo y

sentencias introducidas oralmente a través de demostración, estructuras de comunicación

oral construidas a partir de una progresión en cuanto a las preguntas y contestaciones

intercambiadas entre profesores y alumnos, enseñanza del habla y comprensión auditiva,

con énfasis en la corrección de la pronunciación y de la gramática. Es un método que

requiere pequeños grupos de alumnos, pues implica atención individualizada y estudio

intensivo.

3. Y ahora ¿qué? Hay que darse prisa...

En 1925 hay un declinio del método directo en ios Estados Unidos por falta de profesores

nativos, hecho que desplaza el foco de la conversación hacia la lectura, regresándose así al

método de la gramática y traducción, lo que ocurre de 1930 a 1940. La segunda Guerra

Mundial trajo al escenario mundial, y en especial a los

Estados Unidos, la necesidad de efectuarse de forma eficaz el aprendizaje de lenguas

extranjeras en corto espacio de tiempo para posibilitar la infiltración en el ejército enemigo.

Las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses recibieron la ayuda de lingüistas estructuralistas

expertos como Charles Fríes y su equipo para la viabilización de ese proyecto de enseñanza

de lenguas extranjeras. El método que surge así, con las debidas adaptaciones, pasó a

conocerse a partir de 1950 como método audiolengual (o audiooral).

Los principios estructuralistas de descripción y análisis de la lengua sirven de base a la

elaboración de este método, que contrapone a una descripción científica de la L2 una

descripción paralela de la L1. De esa forma, se hace una previsión de las dificultades que

los alumnos tendrán, las cuales serán abarcadas por el material de enseñanza y por las

estrategias planeadas. Son características del método audiolengual el énfasis en lo oral, con

la utilización de diálogos y aprendizaje de estructuras contexto al izadas. La clase de

Lengua Extranjera se vehicula en la lengua meta, habiendo la utilización de mímica o

cualquier otro recurso que reduzca la utilización de la lengua materna a lo mínimo posible.

La pronunciación es muy importante. Se subraya el progreso del alumno, reforzándole la

actuación satisfactoria. Se trabaja lo que represente potencia I mente una dificultad en el

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aprendizaje de la L2, con la repetición de las estructuras que se manipulan para que llegue a

un uso correcto y buscando evitar la fosilización de los errores.

Simultáneamente, pero de forma independiente, se desarrolla en Inglaterra la enseñanza de

lenguas situacional. Se hace hincapié, en el caso de los británicos, en lo situacional, en las

estructuras usadas en contextos y situaciones. La teoría de aprendizaje que conlleva este

método también es la misma: la teoría behaviorista.

4. Profesor; facilitador y terapeuta...

La escuela generativa-transformacional cuestiona el método audiolengual por su énfasis en

ia práctica mecánica y producción de modelos, pero no ha sido capaz de ofrecer, según

Zanón (1989), un método de carácter tan innovador como su teoría lingüística. Sin

embargo, la teoría chomskyana aunada a una teoría de aprendizaje cognitivista, produce,

según Schimtz (1992), un gran empuje a la psicolingüística, estudios de adquisición del

lenguaje, semántica y una base para la pragmática. Bajo el enfoque humanista hay el

desarrollo de una serie de métodos y técnicas:

4.1 Caleb Gattegno creó el método silencioso, en base a un enfoque humanístico, que

incentiva el aprendizaje por descubrimiento. Gattegno proponía en este método la

obtención de independencia, autonomía y responsabilidad por parte del alumno, además de

la cohesión del grupo en la solución de problemas. El profesor estimulaba al alumno, pero

debería permanecer en silencio la mayor parte del tiempo. Según Zanón (1989), el método

es marcadamente estructural, pero presenta innovaciones en la forma de presentar los

materiales; el papel del profesor como facilitador en el aprendizaje estimulando con pocas

palabras y corrigiendo lo mínimo, la utilización de materiales originales tales como tablas

con piedras o hastes de dimensiones y colores variados para introducir vocabulario

(colores, números, adjetivos, verbo y sintaxis).

4.2 El aprendizaje comunitario es un método creado por Curran (1976), con fuerte

andamiaje en el enfoque humanístico de Karl Rogers. Curran traslada de la psicología a la

metodología de la enseñanza de lenguas procedimientos y técnicas del modelo clínico de

terapia rogeriana. Las necesidades afectivas y cognitivas de

los alumnos están en primer plano. El proceso interactivo es de gran importancia, teniendo

en mira una teoría de lenguaje que considera la lengua como un proceso social. En ese

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proceso interactivo, según Zanón (1989), el alumno metafóricamente convertido en cliente

recibe instrucciones del profesor-terapeuta a través de la

traducción de aquello que desea comunicar al grupo. Las necesidades de comunicación

determinan la progresión del curso.

4.3 Desde 1960 James Asher experimentaba el método de la respuesta física total, y ya en

la década de 70 este método repercute en la enseñanza de L.E.. El método se apoya en la

teoría psicológica de que la memoria aumenta si se estimula a través de la asociación de

actividades moíoras durante el aprendizaje de lenguas, lo que baja la ansiedad. El profesor

conduce a través de mandos la acción de los alumnos.

4.4 En 1979, el psicólogo búlgaro Georgi Lozanovi desarrolla la sugestopedia, método que,

según Brown (1993), se basa en la teoría de que el cerebro humano podría procesar grandes

cantidades de material sí le fueran dadas ciertas condiciones de aprendizaje, una de las

cuales sería el estado de relajamiento producido bajo el control del profesor. El método

señala que el estado de relajamiento de la mente es fundamenta! para una máxima retención

del conocimiento ofrecido. La música es el principal recurso utilizado, además de ¡a

ambieníacíón del local (sala de clases), que debería ser cómodo. Las aplicaciones de la

sugestopedia dicen respecto a la presentación de vocabulario, lecturas, diálogos, roles y

dramatización.

4.5 Stephen Krashen, profesor de lingüística aplicada en la Universidad del Sur de

California, elabora un modelo teórico de adquisición de una segunda lengua. Terrel,

profesor de español como segunda lengua, basándose en el modelo del monitor de Krashen,

desarrolla el enfoque natural. Es uno de los métodos que más repercusión tuvo en los años

80 en Europa y en ios Estados Unidos, El enfoque natural emplea,

en los niveles inicíales de aprendizaje de la lengua, técnicas de respuesta física total.

Determina como tarea del profesor suministrar un input comprensible a los estudiantes, y

crear una variedad de estímulos e intereses dentro de las actividades en sala de clase.

Krashen y Terrel delimitan tres estadios por los cuales pasan los alumnos en el método: ' ' 1

. Estadio de la Pre-producción (período de silencio):

desarrollo de la habilidad de comprensión auditiva; 2. Estadio de la Producción Precoz:

marcado por los errores. Énfasis en el significado y no en la forma. No se debe corregir en

21  

este nivel, sólo si es grave el error cometido; 3. Producción discursiva: se utilizan

actuaciones con roles, inicio y finalización de diálogos,

discusiones y formación de pequeños grupos de trabajo" (Brown, 1993).

5. Buscando el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa: sentido, negociación y reflexión

En 1976, David Wílkins publica "Notional Syllabuses". La planificación nociofuncional

propuesta por Wilkins estaba centrada en el educando y enfatizaba la manifestación de las

ideas a través de funciones comunicativas que determinaban la progresión del curso, bien

como de categorías semántico-gramaticales de tiempo, cantidad, espacio, deixís, etc.

Al final de la década de 70, Europa se mueve, buscando cierta integración lingüística, dado

que se había puesto en marcha a la económica. En ese período el Consejo de Europa reúne

a un reconocido grupo de lingüistas. Liderados por Van Eck, teniendo por base el Notional

Syllabuses de Wilkins, elaboran la justificativa y base para el Nivel Umbral, definido por

Aquilino Sánchez como un inventario de lo

que se puede aprender en términos de nociones y funciones.

Ese movimiento sirve de base al surgimiento del enfoque comunicativo en la enseñanza de

lenguas. Según Richards y Rogers (1989), varios lingüistas aplicados ingleses reconocidos

por su producción teórica en el área como Widdowson, Candlin, Cristopher Brumfit, Keith

Johnson, entre otros, basados en trabajos de lingüistas funcionales como Firth y Halliday,

en el trabajo americano sociolingüístico con Dell Hymes, John Gumperz y William Labov

y en filosofía con John Austin y John Searle, contribuyeron para las bases teóricas del

enfoque comunicativo. El enfoque comunicativo solicita la utilización de la lengua de

forma con textual izada, con foco en la función, con la progresión del curso direccionada

por las funciones lingüísticas, el sentido de la comunicación y los intereses del grupo de

aprendices. Se puede utilizar ejercicios estructurales, pero estos no se vuelven centro del

aprendizaje. El uso de la traducción es un recurso que proporciona una visión contrastada

de la lengua sin la pérdida del sentido global del texto: la búsqueda de significado incluye

la adquisición de las formas, sin que éstas últimas representen un fin en si mismas. El

trabajo desarrollado tiene el objetivo de que el alumno logre una competencia comunicativa

en la L2.

Widdowson (1991) propone en el enfoque comunicativo un tratamiento integrado de las

habilidades lingüísticas buscando el desarrollo de las capacidades comunicativas del

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educando. El aprendiz producirá siempre en interacción con los demás ( el otro siempre se

hace presente, aunque en la condición de destinatario en potencial). Las necesidades

comunicativas del grupo deben ser detectadas y tratadas en un proceso de negociación con

el profesor. La negociación está también por detrás de la resolución de tareas, que al final

de los años SO se destaca a través del trabajo de Prabhu.

6. ¿Dónde entra la gramática?

En el método gramática-traducción ella es el alma: memorizar reglas, traducir oraciones

descontextualizadas o determinar la progresión del curso; son acciones centradas por el

foco en la forma. El aprendizaje natural, inicialmente con el método de las series, y después

de una forma más amplia con el método directo, nos encamina a un trabajo con interacción

oral intensiva en la lengua meta, con poco o ningún análisis gramatical.

Sin embargo, se prioriza la corrección de la pronunciación y de la gramática.

El método audiolengual sigue esa tendencia de un análisis gramatical inductivo. Se da

énfasis a lo oral, con la utilización de diálogos y estructuras contextualizadas. La repetición,

el refuerzo al éxito del estudiante, la inversión en un superaprendizaje de las estructuras

lingüisticas obedecen a una teoría de base behaviorista. Eliminar los errores antes que

surjan, es la orientación de la planificación, materiales y en fin de toda actuación bajo ese

método. Una contestación brillante del alumno, que responda al sentido del

cuestionamiento presentado puede no ser aceptada, si escapa a los límites propuestos en

determinada práctica estructural.

El enfoque humanístico cuestiona relaciones entre el desarrollo cognitivo y el desarrollo

lingüístico. Pese las innovaciones en la forma de presentar los materiales y el incentivo al

aprendizaje por descubrimiento, el método silencioso es marcadamente estructural. El

aprendizaje comunitario invierte en las necesidades afectivas y cognitivas de los alumnos y

las necesidades de comunicación determinan la progresión del curso, no habiendo un lugar

de destaque para la gramática. La respuesta física tota! corresponde más bien a un conjunto

de técnicas, pudiendo representar una palanca para actividades de léxico y experimentación

de temas

gramaticales (por ej.: el imperativo). Las aplicaciones de sugestopedia privilegian la

presentación de vocabulario, lecturas, diálogos, roles y dramatización. El enfoque natural

se basa en situaciones comunicativas significativas; obedece el período de silencio,

23  

característico del contacto inicial del aprendiz con la lengua; en fin, enfatiza el significado

y no la forma. Este conjunto de métodos, que forman parte

del enfoque humanístico, presentan una preocupación en lo que se refiere al aprendiente

como centro del aprendizaje, con una teoría cognitivísta de aprendizaje, priorizando el

significado, o buscando utilizar estrategias que motiven al aprendiz, y que le permitan el

desarrollo de su potencial.

El movimiento comunicativo abarca una serie de tendencias. Baghin et alii (1994) nos

apuntan: a) los comunicativizados, que nos presentan una gran proporción de elementos

estructuralistas, que se adaptan a un contexto comunicativo; b) los funciona/hados, donde

se trabaja teniendo como espina dorsal las funciones del diálogo; c) los inocentes, que

promueven una comunicación efectiva utilizándose de una mezcla de criterios; d) los

críticos, que se subdividen en temáticos, proyectuaies o interdiciplinarios; e) los ulira-

espontaneistas, donde todo se da al azar, en función de la interacción ocurrida.

En esas varias tendencias del movimiento comunicativo el sentido de la comunicación es lo

fundamental. La cuestión formal puede o no tener su espacio para prácticas de rutinización.

Así, mientras los comunicativizados priorizan la adopción de ejercicios de fondo estructural

i sta adaptados a contextos comunicativos, con la utilización de materiales que dedican

cierto espacio a la rutinización, los ultra-comunicativos no se dejan llevar por la gramática,

por prácticas mecanicistas o de explotación gramatical, pues invierten en la lengua en su

transcurso. Los proyectuales, línea desarrollada por Prabhu y conbcida como enfoque por

tarea, definen su enseñanza a través del desarrollo de proyectos (ensamblar un aparato de

radio, clases de culinaria, etc.), he aquí que no se trata nada acerca de la gramática.

Entre los temáticos tenemos el freireano, en que se trabaja con temas límites, muchas veces

elegidos por los alumnos, y donde se busca reflexionar y crecer como ciudadano; y los

interdiciplinarios, en los que el contenido de otras asignaturas escolares suministran temas

que sirven para el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera. En el enfoque comunicativo la

gramática puede tener su lugar (dependiendo de la tendencia a que nos refiramos, como ya

se ha visto). Hay los momentos adecuados a esa sistematización y rutinización en un

proceso comunicativo de aprendizaje. Según Almeida Filho (1997), la rutinización puede

ocurrir para acelerar

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el uso de formas del sistema y para compatibilizar la producción a los órganos en tiempo

real; y la sistematización puede proporcionar un ahorro de tiempo en determinado

momento, puede servir como ancla del conocimiento en la conciencia por lo menos durante

algún tiempo, para delimitar conocimientos que de alguna forma se volverían difusos, para

dominio de un metalenguaje y para pacificar afectivamente al aprendiz que necesita de eso.

Las preguntas directas de los alumnos o la presencia de errores estables son indicativos de

que se hace necesaria la sistematización. Si estos errores se mantienen, bien como para

alguna tarea específica, se requiere la rutinización. No se puede olvidar que un contexto

significativo se hace necesario para actividades lie este tipo y que ellas no pueden

constituirse en espina dorsal del curso, funcionan más bien como satélites o como islas

donde se aclaran conocimientos y donde la forma sirve a propósitos comunicativos.

25  

(2006). The Grammar translation method. [ONLINE] Available at: http://purwarno-linguistics.blogspot.mx/2006/01/grammar-translation-method_13.html. [Last Accessed 28 de Enero del 2013].

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The Grammar Translation Method

The Grammar Translation Method is the oldest method of teaching in India. It is as old as

the international of English in the country. A number of methods and techniques have been

evolved for the teaching of English and also other foreign languages in the recent past, yet

this method is still in use in many part of India. It maintains the mother tongue of the

learner as the reference particularly in the process of learning the second/foreign languages.

The main principles on which the Grammar Translation Method is based are the following:

(i) Translation interprets the words and phrases of the foreign languages in the best possible

manner.

(ii) The phraseology and the idiom of the target language can best be assimilated in the

process of interpretation.

(iii) The structures of the foreign languages are best learnt when compared and contrast

with those of mother tongue.

In this method, while teaching the text book the teacher translates every word, phrase from

English into the mother tongue of learners. Further, students are required to translate

sentences from their mother tongue into English. These exercises in translation are based on

various items covering the grammar of the target language. The method emphasizes the

study of grammar through deduction that is through the study of the rules of grammar. A

contrastive study of the target language with the mother tongue gives an insight into the

structure not only of the foreign language but also of the mother tongue.

Advantages:

1. The phraseology of the target language is quickly explained. Translation is the easiest

way of explaining meanings or words and phrases from one language into another. Any

other method of explaining vocabulary items in the second language is found time

consuming. A lot of time is wasted if the meanings of lexical items are explained through

definitions and illustrations in the second language. Further, learners acquire some short of

accuracy in understanding synonyms in the source language and the target language.

2. Teacher’s labour is saved. Since the textbooks are taught through the medium of the

mother tongue, the teacher may ask comprehension questions on the text taught in the

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mother tongue. Pupils will not have much difficulty in responding to questions on the

mother tongue. So, the teacher can easily assess whether the students have learnt what he

has taught them. Communication between the teacher and the learnersdoes not cause

linguistic problems. Even teachers who are not fluent in English can teach English through

this method. That is perhaps the reason why this method has been practiced so widely and

has survived so long.

Disadvantages:

1. It is an unnatural method. The natural order of learning a language is listening, speaking,

reading and writing. That is the way how the child learns his mother tongue in natural

surroundings. But in the Grammar Translation Method the teaching of the second language

starts with the teaching of reading. Thus, the learning process is reversed. This poses

problems.

2. Speech is neglected. The Grammar Translation Method lays emphasis on reading and

writing. It neglects speech. Thus, the students who are taught English through this method

fail to express themselves adequately in spoken English. Even at the undergraduate stage

they feel shy of communicating through English. It has been observed that in a class, which

is taught English through this method, learners listen to the mother tongue more than that to

the second/foreign language. Since language learning involves habit formation such

students fail to acquire habit of speaking English. Thus, they have to pay a heavy price for

being taught through this method.

3. Exact translation is not possible. Translation is, indeed, a difficult task and exact

translation from one language to another is not always possible. A language is the result of

various customs, traditions, and modes of behaviour of a speech community and these

traditions differ from community to community. There are several lexical items in one

language, which have no synonyms/equivalents in another language. For instance, the

meaning of the English word ‘table’ does not fit in such expression as the ‘table of

contents’, ‘table of figures’, ‘multiplication table’, ‘time table’ and ‘table the resolution’,

etc. English prepositions are also difficult to translate. Consider sentences such as ‘We see

with our eyes’, ‘Bombay is far from Delhi’, ‘He died of cholera’, He succeeded through

hard work’. In these sentences ‘with’, ‘from’, ‘of’, ‘through’ can be translated into the

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Hindi preposition ‘se’ and vice versa. Each language has its own structure, idiom and

usage, which do not have their exact counterparts in another language. Thus, translation

should be considered an index of one’s proficiency in a language.

4. It does not give pattern practice. A person can learn a language only when he internalizes

its patterns to the extent that they form his habit. But the Grammar Translation Method

does not provide any such practice to the learner of a language. It rather attempts to teach

language through rules and not by use. Researchers in linguistics have proved that to speak

any language, whether native or foreign entirely by rule is quite impossible. Language

learning means acquiring certain skills, which can be learnt through practice and not by just

memorizing rules. The persons who have learnt a foreign or second language through this

method find it difficult to give up the habit of first thinking in their mother tongue and than

translating their ideas into the second language. They, therefore, fail to get proficiency in

the second language approximating that in the first language. The method, therefore, suffers

from certain weaknesses for which there is no remedy.

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Silver, M (2003).Total Physical Response: A Curriculum for Adults. English

Language and Literacy Center, St. Louis.

30  

Total Physical Response (or TPR)

Introduction

The method described here: Total Physical Response (TPR), is, like all tools,

most effective when used correctly in the correct setting. Discard the notion of heading

straight into the activities section. Instead, PLEASE take the time to read the directions

first. The success of TPR instruction lies more in applying the method correctly than in the

script of materials.

The “Why” and “How” of TPR

Dr. James J. Asher first described the TPR method in his book “Learning Another

Language Through Actions”. He and other linguists observed the following

characteristics about successful language learners:

1. Good language learners achieve fluency faster when they are immersed in

activities that involve them in situational language use;

2. Good language learners often start their language learning with a period of

silence as they watch the effect of language on others;

3. Good language learners show comprehension by successfully accomplishing

language-generated tasks;

4. Good language learners focus on overall sentence meaning rather than a

sentence’s grammatical parts;

5. Good language learners make faster progress when the language of

instruction is consistent (though limited) on a daily basis, and

6. Good language learners make faster progress when the content involves

language that is clearly usable or valuable outside the classroom.

In commenting on the impact of a period of silence at the beginning of the learning cycle,

Dr. Asher and others speculated that the improved fluency – or the ability to communicate

so that native English speakers can easily understand - results from

students having the chance to absorb the prosody or “music” of the target language without

having to reproduce it orally at that time. In other words, listening andcomprehension are

the first steps in language learning. These, then, are the strategies for good language

learning: 1) students need to be involved in a situation where oral language meaning is

31  

immediately perceived and understood; 2) student silence (as opposed to oral production) is

permitted and encouraged as a learning tool while they can watch the effect of language on

the actions of others; 3) student comprehension is demonstrated by successfully completing

tasks cued by oral language; and 4) students can focus on overall meaning rather than

grammar. These key teaching/learning strategies are built into this method and into this

script.

The current script provides the structure and organization to include the other

valuable instructional strategies that Dr. Asher observed: 5) consistent language on a daily

basis, and 6) content involving English that is clearly usable or valuable outside the

classroom. And finally, this script’s primary focus is on adults: their interests, their needs

and their environment.

Students are much more focused in their learning when instruction involves the use

of physical items – “realia” – to create meaning. “Manipulables” eliminate the possibility

of ambiguity in meaning. However, depending on the availability of resources, the teacher

may have to resort to Picture Dictionaries or similar resources. On the whole, this script

uses topics for which a supply of realia is often readily available. However, if pictures must

be used, we recommend they be as large as possible and mounted on some sturdy material

so that they are the same pictures each lesson for consistency and can be stored without

likelihood of damage.

HOW TO TEACH USING TPR:

TPR’s LIMITATION: The TPR method described here is for use with adults who are

complete ESL beginners only. If the student is able to spontaneously volunteer any English,

he is going to find this script very limiting and is probably better in a class where he can

continue to work on his oral production skills.

1. TPR and the syllabus. TPR is recommended as just one component in the syllabus for

beginning adult students. Other syllabus components may include, for

instance, numeracy, date and time recognition, writing, listening discrimination,

picture stories etc.

Every TPR lesson needs to include three steps: 1) teaching/learning; 2) practice

or rehearsal and 3) testing or evaluation.

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2. Class size: TPR works best with about 8 students. More than 10 students, and

there will be too much unfocused time as each student waits for his turn during the

individual demonstrations. Fewer than six and it becomes difficult to limit the number of

new vocabulary items to a “learnable” number making the lesson top heavy with

vocabulary.

If you do have more than 10 students, maybe you can use a volunteer. If so, be sure to

provide training and a lesson plan record sheet to monitor progress.

3. How many new vocabulary items in one lesson? Nine new vocabulary items in one

lesson is an average achievable goal. Some students can learn more, some less. The fourth

step in the teaching/ review/ testing /evaluation procedures will soon tell you how many

new vocabulary items your students can really master in one lesson. You may find that you

can increase the number of vocabulary items for an ambitious class by moving into a

different topic area. You may need fewer vocabulary items for a slower class.

4. Ask for/expect no oral participation: If you do have a student with some very limited oral

production skills in your class, he is probably going to want to recite along with you. You

will need to persuade him to do it with his mouth only and not voice his sounds so that

other class members listen only to native speaker modeling. Don’t encourage verbal

responses from the students – only actions.

After about 10 hours of instruction, some students may spontaneously start

parroting the teacher. These students are telling you they are ready to move into a regular

communication skills class. It is not considered appropriate to have students learn to speak

the TPR script because imperatives are of limited use in

most general communication environments.

5. Using consistent imperatives: The teacher uses the imperative form of the verb

throughout (Point to … Walk to …Touch the etc.). Some teachers find this bare

language uncouth and feel they must preface it with “please” or offer elaborate

instructions or explanations, such as, “You see?” or “No, watch me again” or

“Please do x not y”. We recommend the alternative of an international signal of

friendliness to offset feelings of uncouthness, such as a smile. So, practice

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purging your language of commentary, names, injunctions and any language other than that

in the script. That’s easier than having to remember to say “Please” in front of every single

imperative.

6. lesson steps/1, 2 and 3:

• Step 1: Teaching/learning: The teacher needs to act out the action that demonstrates her

imperatives clearly and consistently, that is, when the teacher says, “Point to the door” she

needs to accompany her words by pointing to the door herself. She needs to point to the

same door each time. The correct response from the student or students is the act of

immediately pointing to the door. (This is the “Physical” response of “Total Physical

Response”).

• Step 2: Practice or rehearse. The teacher needs to use the words and the actions of the

imperative consistently to establish understanding and student confidence in their mastery

of this word-action communication system. As student competence becomes clear,

however, the teacher needs to transition to using words WITHOUT actions. Be ready to

put the action back in (thus returning to Stage 1 instruction) if any student shows

uncertainty or confusion.

• Step 3: Evaluate. Evaluation is the end-stage of the teaching/learning and practice-to-

competence sequence. Here, the student functions in English without any support from the

teacher’s gestures or the predictability of repetitive, known sequencing. The teacher will be

able to see if the students can unhesitatingly demonstrate what has been taught and

practiced.

7. Getting ready: Teachers need to prepare for a TPR lesson by doing the following:

A. Set learning goals for teacher and students. What will your students know at the end of

the lesson that they do not know at the beginning? To ensure student progress, write out

(use the blank Lesson Plan form at the back of this handbook) or write down in a notebook

your exact lesson language [so that you have a record of the vocabulary items your students

have covered and/or need to review]. Are you going to use “point to” or “touch the” or

“pick up” or …? Are you going to work on parts of the body, room items, tools or …? Will

you use realia or pictures? If using pictures, how are you going to display the pictures so

34  

that ALL students can see the same pictures? All of these details need to be thought through

and realia

gathered, the script written and the support material (thumb tacks, scotch

tape etc.) included.

B. Memorize your script. Pacing is all-important in TPR and to maintain that pacing, you

will not have time to look at your notes. You need to have the entire nine to twelve word

script in memory so you can speak at your normal speaking speed and sustain your

students’ attention and concentration. So, memorize your script.

C. Use your normal intonation, rhythm and stress pattern. Using your normal

speech pattern will help to establish the

D. prosody or “music” of our language in the students’ heads. It is this unique “music” that

creates much of our communication. Consider how important intonation is when we change

meaning with a change in our intonation pattern while saying: “The POLICE are here?”

The police are HERE?” “The police are here.” Stress and intonation are key factors in our

communication. Help the students learn this by using your normal speaking speed and tone

of voice. You can slow your delivery the first time through so that the students can clearly

hear individual syllables, but after that you need to return to your normal speaking speed.

The emphasis on normal speaking speed is critical in ensuring that students develop native

speaker reflex response to your oral directions.

What happens when you slow your speech down? When you slow down your delivery, you

lose your natural intonation pattern, strain your voice, promote word-by-word translation

and defeat the whole purpose of TPR, that is, near native speaker understanding. So, speak

normally.

8. Practice your first lesson in front of a mirror! Remember that, during the lesson, you will

not be able to explain what you want your students to do. After all, the reason they’re in a

TPR class is because they have zero English. So, practice pantomiming the following.

Make your actions explain what you want the

students to do: “Watch. Listen. Do not speak.”

Deliver your first three imperatives three times pointing as you do it each time.

Maintain a consistent tone and speed.

A. You say (For example):

35  

“Point to the table. Point to the chair. Point to the floor.”

“Point to the table. Point to the chair. Point to the floor.”

“Point to the table. Point to the chair. Point to the floor.”

B. You pantomime: Next, pantomime that you want the students to copy you by pointing as

you speak. You may have to run around the first time to show students how to point, but

after that they are usually very happy to find that they just have to listen, copy your actions

and not to speak.

9 Lesson procedures for each new language unit (One verb or verb phrase constitutes a

complete new unit of information, whereas nouns may be introduced in groups of up to

three at a time).

A. Model: Say the three imperatives while modeling the action three times

B. Say the three imperatives and have the group practice the actions as many times as are

necessary for success reinforcing the actions by pointing when any student displays

uncertainty.

C. Randomize the imperatives. Still working with the whole group, instead of

saying:

• “Touch your head.” “Touch your nose.” “Touch your chin.”

say:

• “Touch your nose.” “Touch your nose.” (yes, this is a deliberate

repeat.) “Touch your head.” “Touch your nose.” “Touch your chin.”

When you break the pattern of predictability, you are asking the students to differentiate

among the sounds they are hearing in order to respond. This is a test and the student

responses give the teacher information about any student uncertainties. As the group

focuses on this new challenge, some will be quick to respond and some will start looking

around for help and support. This is a valuable “teachable” moment. Still working with the

whole group, review and re-teach where uncertainty is apparent. Pay particular attention to

any student who is clearly depending on other students for his responses. Everyone needs to

be sure before

moving to individualized demonstrations.

D. Individual response at random/evaluation: Now’s the time to check for individual

competence (and confidence). Start with your strongest student and work your way round

36  

the class (but DO NOT say student names). Give each student 4 or 5 imperatives in

random order as in C above. Leave each student on a “success”. Do not allow an

individual student to fail at any stage. Help immediately if necessary when you see a

student hesitate by guiding him through the required action. Start the next student with the

last “success” the class heard. Student hesitation tells you that you have not fully

established the sound-object connection in the student’s memory. Repeat and model the

imperative several times to embed the one item that the student hesitated over. Encourage

the student to act out the demonstration too, and as soon as he seems competent, go to an

item in that sequence that he knows and then back to the “problem” imperative. The goal is

to leave the student on a success so that he can see he is making progress. You need to do

this correction speedily enough that you do not lose the attention of the other students.

Some teachers with beginning level students feel that they are being kind to their students

when they break the grouping and teach one item at a time. Our observation of students and

our own personal learning experience suggest it is easier to memorize three groups of three

related items especially when supported by actions and realia (or visuals) than 9 individual

items.

In addition, teaching groups of items helps students to memorize by categories, an

important aid to recall. At the same time, the predictability of grouping reduces the anxiety

that accompanies learning.

10. Predictability as a teaching tool. Teach each new action or response in the same

sequence each lesson. A predictable pattern of instruction is itself a form of communication

and helps to allay student anxiety so that they learn more easily.

11. Consistent modeling each day is important. That is, if you used “Stand up” on one day,

you should not use, “Get up” on the next day. If the teacher mixes the oral

cues, the student becomes uncertain of the wanted responses.

12. One-step additions to the syllabus: Introduce new language one unit at a time. One verb

or verb phrase constitutes a complete new unit of information, whereas nouns may be

introduced in groups of up to three at a time. Introduce new verbs with familiar nouns, and

new nouns with familiar verbs. Avoid introducing a new verb and a unit of new nouns at

the same time. This can send the students into overload and confusion.

37  

13. Maintain all steps in the teaching sequence: Whatever adjustments you make, the

success of the method is tied to maintaining every step of the teaching sequence outlined

here. If your students are really “hungry” for new material, they may be telling you that

they are ready to move into an oral production script.

14. Vocabulary choice: The vocabulary was chosen for its usefulness to most newly arrived

work-bound immigrants, and for the easy availability of the objects. A few items that

seemed useful but not essential are included in parentheses in some units and may be used

for groups that are particularly hungry for material.

Teachers can add vocabulary items particular to areas of the country. However, list them in

the glossary and be sure to support their meaning with realia or

pictures.

15. Evaluate! Evaluate! Evaluate! Many new teachers assume that reviewing (or recycling)

material covered earlier insults adult students. However, reviewing at

a challenging pace can avoid “insult” to most students. For other students, review is like a

memory “booster” and can make learning more certain. Thus, review – and the evaluation

opportunity it provides - will show the teacher whether the teaching has created ‘lasting

learning’ or was superficial and left learning gaps for the teacher to fill. Review and

evaluation can thus work handin-hand to ensure student progress telling the teacher when

the students are ready to move on to language production.

16. Problems and cures:

A. The lack of an immediate student response gives the teacher important feedback. Is the

hesitation confined to one student or more? Is the problem with the student or the teacher?

One common student problem centers on student learning style. Some students are

independent learners. They enjoy the scary challenge of learning. Some are dependent

learners. They are uncomfortable and uncertain about the challenge of doing their own

learning. They are more used to having someone else telling them what to do or say. If you

have a student who never acts without checking the actions of another student first (a

dependent learner), this may be the time to seek native speaker assistance. Seek someone

(preferably not a student or family member) who can translate reliably. Then, as soon as

possible and outside class, explain to the dependent student that you want to help him (or

her) learn English, that you are very experienced at teaching ESL, and that you know how

38  

to adjust the lesson to make it learnable, but only he (or she) can do the learning. Try to get

a commitment from the dependent student to try.

B Are you modeling and demonstrating sufficiently before you begin asking the students to

demonstrate to you?

C. Are you maintaining your “pacing” or are you going so slowly that the students are

‘tuning you out’?

D. Some students are parroting teacher aloud. Signal them to be silent - don’t try to

explain. Student vocalizing will slow your delivery and the other learners will be listening

to learner-English rather than native speaker English.

E. Is your language “clean” of all commentary and consistent on a daily basis?

F. Are all the students focused? If some were still chatting in their native language when

the lesson started, then they didn’t have time to transition from language or thought to

English. Remember, too, that a key element in TPR’s success is that the language be of

interest to the students. This means that teaching household items in an all-male class, for

instance, may have only very limited interest. If so, you might want to move on to tools or

transportation.

G. Is the lesson too long so that the students have too many words to hold on to? 30-40

minutes is usually as much intense concentration as class AND teacher can handle in one

day.

H. Is the lesson too short so that the students do not have time to fully absorb the learning

tasks?

I. Is the lesson too easy so that the students are not sufficiently challenged?

Can you pick up the pace of your delivery and the number of new vocabulary items you are

teaching in each lesson? Or are the students telling you that they are ready for an oral

production class?

J. Is the lesson too difficult? A successful lesson should end with every student achieving

success. Not even one student should be allowed to fail. You may have to increase the

number of your repetitions, because part of the success of TPR is that students keep up

their enthusiasm for learning because they CAN succeed.

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K. “They’re bored!” Who’s bored? The students or the teacher? TPR lessons call for a

very high level of concentration from the teacher and involve a lot of script repetition at a

predictable rate of delivery. Some teachers give up after a few days claiming the students

are “bored”. More often, the teacher becomes bored and reflects it in her delivery. The

teacher needs to focus on the students’ needs and accomplishments, checking off their

achievements and moving them towards near nativespeaker listen-and-respond speed. In

writing student goals, specify the listen-and-respond speed. Keep a careful record of what

the students

HAVE successfully learned. Their successes help to keep boredom at bay.

L. Beginning students feel very insecure. After all, returning to the classroom as an adult

can be stressful. In addition, when adults find themselves without the language skills to

manage their own daily lives many feel profoundly inadequate. Keep in mind, therefore,

that what is boring to you is still very new to them. Maintaining the predictability of the

teaching sequence and building up a categorically organized and usable vocabulary can be

reassuring besides being an effective teaching tool.

40  

Marín, M., (2004). Lingüística y Enseñanza de la Lengua. 1st ed. Pp. 12-15. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Aique.

41  

El enfoque comunicacional de la enseñanza de la lengua

En la actualidad, el "enfoque comunicacional”, da cuenta, de alguna manera, de los

cambios que se están produciendo en la didáctica de la lengua. Parece evidente, sin

embargo, que esta denominación se refiere solamente a la teoría lingüística que informa las

nuevas prácticas, pero, como dijimos antes, los cambios didácticos no se dan en forma

independiente de los modelos pedagógicos; son el emergente, en las estrategias de aula, de

una teoría del aprendizaje y de una ideología pedagógica. En este caso, las nuevas prácticas

docentes, las nuevas estrategias que se implementen para producir aprendizajes efectivos en

el dominio de lo lingüístico, responden a una teoría del aprendizaje distinta de las

anteriores, a otra teoría acerca de la lengua y a una noción distinta del propósito que el

aprendizaje lingüístico debe tener en la escuela.

Podríamos caracterizar este modelo pedagógico diciendo que se propone la preparación de

personalidades que tiendan a la autonomía y la criticidad de pensamiento, gracias a la

significativización social y personal de los aprendizajes sistemáticos.

La teoría del aprendizaje que esta ideología pedagógica supone es el constructivismo en un

sentido amplio, y no solamente el constructivismo piagetiano (Carretero, 1994). Este

sentido amplio del constructivismo aparece desarrollado en uno de los próximos apartados

de este mismo capítulo.

La teoría de la lengua que se propone es la que la concibe como discursividad o como

textualidad, es decir, como instrumento de comunicación en sus dimensiones discursiva,

textual y lingüística. Esto implica ir más allá de la estructura formal y abstracta de la que

dan cuenta el análisis sintáctico y las clasificaciones gramaticales, y abarcar la teoría del

discurso, la lingüística del texto, la sociolingüística, la pragmática, la semántica, pero

también la morfosintaxis y el uso de las convenciones. Esto también, se desarrolla con un

poco más de amplitud en un próximo apartado.

Ahora bien, la enseñanza de cualquier disciplina se apoya en una teoría de la disciplina y en

una teoría del aprendizaje, pero este enfoque de la educación lingüística se apoya, además,

en la teoría de la escritura y en la teoría de la lectura como procesos.

El propósito de los aprendizajes lingüísticos en la escuela es el mejoramiento de las

competencias y los desempeños de los usuarios, es decir que el objetivo de esos

aprendizajes debería ser siempre el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa, y ésta no

42  

sólo es la eficacia de un sujeto para comunicar su pensamiento, es también la posibilidad

que tiene un sujeto de "inscribirse" en su lengua, de hacerse responsable de sus enunciados;

la posibilidad, no de la distancia del estructuralismo, sino de la identificación de una lengua

como constituyente del propio sujeto5.

La competencia comunicativa y sus componentes

Las investigaciones lingüísticas, posteriores a la década del sesenta, que se centraron ya no

en la oración sino en el texto como unidad comunicativa, produjeron, junto con las

investigaciones acerca del aprendizaje, una verdadera revolución copernicana acerca de la

enseñanza de la lengua y del tipo de aprendizajes que deberían promoverse.

Es así como la sociolingüística, la teoría y el análisis del discurso, la psicolingüística, la

pragmática, la teoría de la enunciación, las teorías de la comunicación proponen una

concepción de la lengua distinta de la del estructuralismo.

Esta concepción de la lengua como actividad textual, y no meramente oracional, postula

que la comunicación verbal de los seres humanos no se realiza por medio de oraciones, sino

a través de textos o discursos como unidades de significación. Los textos o discursos, por

otra parte, se producen dentro de situaciones que son cambiantes y que condicionan a los

interlocutores para que elijan qué decir, cómo decirlo y cómo organizar lo que dicen. Esto

supone que una comunicación eficaz y adecuada pone en juego ciertas competencias o

habilidades que conforman la competencia comunicativa.

Cuando el sistema de signos que se usa para comunicarse es la lengua, la competencia

comunicativa incluye otras competencias, como lo muestra el siguiente esquema:

La competencia lingüística consiste en la capacidad de formular enunciados sintáctica y

léxicamente adecuados, de modo que puedan ser comprendidos. Por ejemplo: “Esta planta

se está marchitando” y no "marchitando planta se esta está".

La competencia discursiva consiste en la capacidad de elegir el tipo de texto adecuado a la

situación o circunstancia en que está el que se comunica. Por ejemplo: los alumnos quieren

organizar un festival y tienen que pedir permiso a la dirección de la escuela. Deciden que

vaya Fernando. Fernando se presenta a la directora y en lugar de solicitar autorización,

comienza informando: "Estamos organizando un festival en la escuela; mi papá y el de

Simón van a armar el escenario..."

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La competencia textual consiste en la capacidad de construir un texto bien organizado

dentro del tipo elegido. Por ejemplo: narrar de modo inteligible y no desordenadamente,

incluir en una solicitud las causas por las cuales se requiere algo, etcétera.

La competencia pragmática consiste en la capacidad de lograr un determinado efecto

intencional mediante el texto que se ha construido; por ejemplo: convencer al interlocutor

mediante argumentos adecuados para ese efecto y mediante una cierta disposición de esos

argumentos en el texto.

La competencia enciclopédica consiste en el conocimiento del mundo y en el conjunto de

saberes más particularizados que permiten un intercambio comunicativo eficaz, por parte de

los interlocutores. Esta competencia excedería el ámbito de los aprendizajes en el área de la

lengua que pueda proponerse la escuela, pero forma parte de una concepción integral del

lenguaje y de la educación.

Ahora bien, la institución escolar se ha ocupado tradicionalmente de los aspectos

relacionados con la competencia lingüística, con el conocido resultado que se sintetiza en

esta frecuente observación: “¡Ay! yo no sé qué le pasa a Fulanita (o Zutanito); las pruebas

de análisis sintáctico están perfectas, pero cuando escribe es un desastre; no se entiende qué

es lo que quiere decir, salta de una cosa a la otra...”. Sin embargo, esta centralización de la

competencia lingüística no se justifica plenamente, ya que, cuando los niños comienzan su

escolaridad, lo hacen con una cierta competencia lingüística, dado que normalmente se

comunican de manera inteligible para los demás. Ningún niño de cinco o seis años diría: "el

lápiz, mi abuela, el zoológico, comprar". De modo que no sería ésa la competencia a la que

deberían dedicarse los mayores esfuerzos de la enseñanza; lo que los aprendientes

necesitarían, en ese sentido, es mejorar su desempeño. Por ejemplo, no necesitan aprender a

construir la oración "El taxista condujo demasiado rápido", sino a utilizar la formula

"condujo", y no "condució", a utilizar más frecuentemente el verbo "conducir" en lugar de

"manejar" y a ampliar o reducir sus enunciados de manera que adquieran mayor eficacia.

Por su parte, las teorías actuales del aprendizaje ya han dejado establecido que ese mejor

desempeño no se adquiere con el aprendizaje memorístico de la conjugación verbal, ni con

el análisis sintáctico, ni con la clasificación de palabras, y esto mismo podría corroborarlo

cualquier maestro o profesor a partir de la experiencia cotidiana.

44  

El desempeño de las otras competencias que constituyen la competencia comunicativa se

desarrolla durante toda la vida. Preguntémonos al respecto cuántas veces los adultos nos

encontramos en situaciones comunicativas nuevas, en las cuales podemos llegar a

plantearnos: "¿Se lo digo directamente o primero le explico las razones?", "¿Por dónde

empiezo?" (competencia textual). "¿Van a entender si no doy antes una explicación?".

"¿Sabrán algo de este tema?" (competencia enciclopédica). "¿Cómo hago para

convencerlo?" (competencia pragmática). "¿Le escribo una carta o le hablo por teléfono?"

(competencia discursiva). Supongamos que usted nunca ha escrito una carta de lectores y

siente la necesidad de hacerlo. En ese caso, no sólo tendrá que poner en juego la

competencia lingüística, sino que tendrá que tomar decisiones de escritura que le requerirán

una cierta reflexión, porque se halla ante una situación comunicativa completamente nueva:

tendrá que pensar cómo componer el texto, es decir, qué escribir antes y qué escribir

después; elegir el registro y el tono apropiados; se preguntará si su léxico es suficiente;

deberá decidir si es necesario presentar argumentos o dar explicaciones colaterales, tendrá

que buscar un modelo de texto... etcétera, etcétera...

45  

Alguacil, G. (2013). Sugestopedia, pedagogía desugestiva. [ONLINE] Available at:

http://www.npp-sugestopedia.com/clase.htm . [Last Accessed 28 de Enero del 2013].

46  

Sugestopedia

Pedagogía Desugestiva

La clase sugestopédica

La enseñanza sugestopédica no tiene nada que ver con lo que tradicionalmente entendemos

como un proceso de instrucción. En una clase sugestopédica hay pocos elementos que

recuerden a una clase convencional, a lo que la mayor parte de la gente tiene grabado en su

memoria como un lugar de aprendizaje, de estudio, ¿quizá de esfuerzo, sacrificio,

aburrimiento o sufrimiento?

El lugar elegido tendrá amplitud suficiente, luz adecuada, colores suaves, se tratará de crear

un ambiente que invite a entrar, que sugiera que va a ser agradable estar allí. No se trata de

lujo, se trata de armonía.

Tanto si se usan o no mesas, los asientos de los alumnos y del profesor se dispondrán de

forma que cada persona tenga contacto visual con todas las demás (puede ser en círculo o

similar). Todos los alumnos son igual de importantes. El profesor es igual de importante

que los alumnos. Nadie es más importante. Cada uno desempeña su papel y el del profesor

es facilitar.

La empatía de unos alumnos con otros y a su vez con el profesor se empieza a crear desde

el primer momento en que entra el profesor en la clase.

La responsabilidad del aprendizaje no se coloca en el alumno, es el profesor el que la

asume, aunque dando algunas recomendaciones a seguir.

El profesor no es un mero informador de datos. Con su actitud siempre invitante, nunca

demandante, también va a apoyar, a estimular, a proteger, a crear una atmósfera artística,

alegre, relajada, amable, paciente y lúdica, conduciendo al grupo de manera que cada

alumno se sienta seguro. No pretende cambiar nada en el alumno, respeta totalmente el

sistema de creencias de cada uno de ellos, acepta las dudas o las posibles críticas con una

47  

actitud abierta, no manipula. Su comunicación se adapta a los sentimientos y conducta tanto

de cada alumno individualmente como del grupo en su conjunto.

La materia a impartir está cuidadosamente organizada de forma que se impliquen de

manera simultánea las capacidades lógicas y asociativas del cerebro.

La combinación de todos estos elementos organizados orquestada y sistematizadamente va

enfocada a lograr una comunicación a nivel de las capacidades de reserva del

cerebro/psique con el fin de que el alumno baje sus barreras psicológicas, eliminando

miedos e inseguridades, lo que supondrá un gran aumento en su motivación y le permitirá

asimilar mucha más cantidad de información en mucho menos tiempo, es decir, acelerar el

aprendizaje destapando sus reservas mentales.

La clase sugestopédica de idiomas para adultos

El alumno principiante o de nivel bajo viene con las inseguridades e inquietudes propias del

adulto ante un nuevo aprendizaje: "me cuesta concentrarme", "ya he perdido el hábito de

estudio", "ya soy muy mayor para aprender cosas nuevas", "tengo muy mal oído para los

idiomas", etc.

El alumno de nivel intermedio generalmenteha estudiado ya durante mucho tiempo el

idioma, a veces incluso desde la infancia en el colegio. Tiene bastante vocabulario, sabe

más o menos la gramática, traduce bien, pero suele tener grandes dificultades para

expresarse en ese idioma y para entenderlo. Piensa en español o en su lengua materna y va

traduciendo mentalmente, buscando en su memoria la información que aprendió de forma

fragmentada en diferentes momentos de su vida y que, en parte, habrá olvidado porque

solamente se estimuló la memoria a corto plazo. No tiene una visión global ni de la

estructura lingüística ni de la gramática del idioma en cuestión. El aprendizaje, aunque haya

durado largos años, no está automatizado. De ahí las grandes dificultades en la

comunicación y en la comprensión. Además, mientras se está procesando mentalmente lo

que se quiere verbalizar, sobrevienen toda clase de bloqueos psicológicos, miedos e

inseguridades que tienen incluso manifestaciones fisiológicas tales como una mayor

sudoración, cambios en el color de la piel, nerviosismo, ansiedad, taquicardia, etc.

48  

Estos son resultados típicos de la enseñanza convencional: la información siempre ha ido

dirigida a la mente consciente del alumno, a su parte lógica, desaprovechando recursos

como la capacidad asociativa del cerebro, la creatividad, la fantasía, las emociones, que en

Sugestopedia se utilizan en forma de estímulos periféricos organizados dirigidos al

inconsciente y que van a activar lamemoria a largo plazo, permitiendo que la materia

aprendida no se olvide.

En la clase sugestopédica de idiomas para adultos la información lógica destinada al

consciente se envuelve y se completa con la destinada al inconsciente en forma de un

entorno adecuado, elementos artísticos, música, juegos, ambiente lúdico y amable. En

definitiva, se aprovechan una mayor cantidad de recursos de ambos hemisferios cerebrales

y de todo el cerebro en general, se estimulan las diferentes facetas de la personalidad, se

destapan las reservas mentales.

El resultado es que el alumno va a acelerar e integrar el aprendizaje, sin tener que estudiar,

absorbiendo de 3 a 5 veces más materia que en métodos convencionales.

El alumno principiante se va a encontrar con un vocabulario de 600 a 800 vocablos nuevos

y toda la gramática básica en la primera lección. El profesor va a presentar este material

dentro de un contexto artístico utilizando música clásica de fondo. En los días siguientes se

va a elaborar todo este material dentro de un marco de juego, de sorpresa, de humor, de

diversión, invitando a la participación continua.

Esto sería inimaginable dentro del esquema convencional de enseñanza de lenguas, pues

rompe todas las normas de la vía lógica de aprendizaje. Pero en la enseñanza sugestopédica

el alumno no se asusta ante la gran cantidad de materia, sino al contrario, se sorprende

agradablemente y participa con gusto en las muchas y diferentes actividades lúdicas y

artísticas, su curiosidad se despierta como cuando era un niño. Desarrolla una actitud que

va a hacer que aumente su motivación, su ilusión, su bienestar general y que absorba y

memorice grandes cantidades de información sin esfuerzo. La gramática, la estructura

lingüística, la pronunciación, la entonaciónse absorben, no se estudian. Realmente como

cuando aprendimos nuestra propia lengua de pequeños. El bloqueo ante la comunicación y

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la comprensión se rompe rápidamente. El alumno, tanto principiante como de nivel

intermedio, se da cuenta de que realmente puede hacerlo, de que no es imposible.

No sólo el ambiente, la actitud del profesor, el contexto artístico y lúdico, sino el material,

libro de texto, etc. también están dirigidos a destapar las reservas mentales.

La enseñanza sugestopédica, con su enfoque global, contribuye a integrar la personalidad

del alumno.

50  

Lackman, K., (s.f.). Lexical approach activities. Ken Lackman and associates. pp.2-10.

51  

A Revolutionary Way of Teaching

Ken Lackman

Introduction

Very basically, a lexical approach to teaching means the primary focus is on helping

students acquire vocabulary. This movement away from a grammar-based syllabus largely

began in 1993 with the publication of “The Lexical Approach” by Michael Lewis. It was

called an approach to differentiate it from a method. In English language teaching, methods

are systems for structuring lessons while approaches are less concerned with how the lesson

is structured and more concerned with the general focus of instruction. Teachers should be

aware of this as there is some reluctance to adopt a more lexical approach because of the

fear that it may mean revamping the way one teaches. In reality, teachers can use any

methodology with a lexical approach from grammar translation to task-based learning.

What changes is just the linguistic focus of the lesson.

While one might think the paradigm shift was away from teaching grammar structures

towards teaching individual words, the linguistic focus of the lexical approach is really in

between grammar and what we traditionally think of as vocabulary. What it focuses on are

structures made up of words, meaning that the actual paradigm shift was away from

individual words to clusters of words, or lexical chunks as they are commonly referred to.

This new idea about the structural nature of the language does not exclude grammatical

structures but instead recognizes that the language has far more structures than those that

occur in the grammatical syllabus. Consider the statement below.

The Lexical Approach is based on the idea that language is made up of other structural

elements besides what we traditionally think of as grammar.

In that statement, there are two distinct structures:

“X is based on the idea/belief/premise that + clause”

“X is made up of Y”.

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Both of these structures occur fairly frequently in the language with different variables. Yet

neither one would be found in a grammar book. In his book, Michael Lewis suggested that

teachers need to help students become aware of the lexical structures that commonly occur

in the language. The idea is that if students become aware of some of the many lexical

structures, they will have a lot more information about how to combine individual words to

build coherent structures like phrases, expressions and whole sentences, which should

ultimately emulate those used by native speakers. Many teachers have noticed that it is not

use of grammar which separates higher level students from native speakers – often the

student‟s grammar will be better than a native speaker‟s – but the way words are combined

into lexical chunks.

Grammar vs. Lexis

Grammar has been the focus of language teaching for centuries, yet it is vocabulary, or

more specifically, lexis, which learners need to negotiate meaning. Consider the two groups

of sentences below:

Incorrect Grammar Correct Grammar

I go to zoo yesterday. I went to the zoo yesterday.

I go to zoo now. I am going to the zoo now.

I go to zoo tomorrow. I’ll go to the zoo tomorrow.

The first set of sentences is perfectly comprehendible because meaning is carried not by

grammar but by lexis. A listener would be able to understand what the speaker meant

because of words like “go”, “zoo” and “now”. In reality, we do not have to be

grammatically correct to communicate effectively, but we need to be correct with our use

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of lexis. Consider how drastically the meaning of the above sentences would change if

“tomorrow” was used instead of “yesterday” or if “park” was used instead of “zoo”.

Correct Lexis Incorrect Lexis

I go to zoo yesterday. I go to zoo tomorrow.

I go to zoo now. I go to park now.

I go to zoo tomorrow. He go to zoo tomorrow.

A lexical mistake often causes misunderstanding, while a grammar mistake rarely does.

John Sinclair, IATEFL 1996

However unpopular it is with teachers, language which contains grammatical errors is

unlikely to be misunderstood in context, but with lexical errors misunderstanding,

incomprehension, or in rare cases even offence, are quite likely. Recognizing the lexical

nature of language, and the centrality of lexis to the creation of meaning, and consequently

to communicative power, demotes grammar – and in particular, the often unnatural,

inaccurate grammar of standard EFL – to a subsidiary role.

Michael Lewis 1997

Grammar has been the basis of language teaching for so long because there are a limited

number of essential structures and they can be quite easily graded and organized into a

syllabus. On the other hand, it‟s a daunting, if not impossible task to select vocabulary to

focus on from a lexicon that consists of millions of individual words and lexical structures.

This is the reason that most coursebooks are based on a grammatical syllabus.

One way that we can determine what vocabulary to focus on with learners is by looking at

what words are most frequently used by native speakers. Because of computers, we now

have access to data indicating word frequency and lists such as the Academic Word List

have become popular.

54  

It is interesting to look at the most frequent words of spoken English.

The top 200 words represent about 60% of spoken language.

The top 2000 words represent about 90% of spoken language.

A surprisingly small number of individual words represent a very large part of the spoken

lexicon. Most of the words which make up the top words of spoken English are high in

frequency because of how often they combine with other words, many of them also on the

high frequency list. The following chart of the most frequent words illustrates how these

words can combine with each other to produce combinations, or lexical chunks, where the

meaning of the individual words can change once they are put together. All of the

constructions on the right are made exclusively from the words in the chart. There are many

more that could be constructed from this list, and thousands more that could be constructed

from the top 200, which is why they represents 60% of spoken language. The top 2000

words would produce hundreds of thousands of combinations.

Most frequent 68 words of spoken English

the for she very

I not this from

and but there because

be go he thing

you well on right

it think all people

a if them me

of at see out

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to with now my

in so come time

have there as want

that just your an

we or up will

they would mean take

get can when some

do no about could

what then which make

take to

take in

take that!

take on

take up

take her out

take my time

take what you will

take what you can get

get in

get up

get out

get on

get right

get one up on

get up and go

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get with it!

get what you can

Because these constructions, or chunks, often have their own usage and/or meaning, it is

essential that we do not focus on individual words when teaching lexically, as so much

of the language we commonly use is actually made up of combinations of the most frequent

words. To use a simple example, words like “get”, “out”, “back”, etc. combine with each

other to produce numerous “lexical chunks” often with their own particular meaning

and usage: e.g., “get out”, “out back”, “back out”, “get back”, “get back out”.

Features of the Lexical Approach

The Lexical

Approach

is based on

the

idea

notion

premise

assumption

belief

that Language is made up

of other structural

elements besides what

we traditionally think

of as grammar.

Noun/

Noun phrase + is based on the + abstract noun + that + clause

Using the Lexical Approach requires the investigation of spoken and written language in

order to notice structures which are often ignored because they do not fall into the

categories determined by the traditional understanding of grammar. Outlining the form of

these structures (see example above), helps students acquire and use the structures and

trains them to recognize other ones. The idea is not so much that students remember the

structure of various lexical chunks, for there are far too many to remember, but that they

become aware of the structural nature of the language beyond the traditional grammar

structures. Once they have some awareness of how language is chunked together, they are

more likely to notice the how a particular lexical chunk is structured and that dissection

process is a step not only towards retaining that structure but also other structures like it.

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Concordance printout

[/h] Our philosophy is based on the belief that

It is a package which is based on the philosophy which

opposition to the merger is based on the argument that the

over time - which is based on the concept that a

of Andrews's theorising is based on the premise that

Our forecast for 1996 is based on the assumption that

known. [p] Osteopathy is based on the notion that the

city of Bremen. The idea is based on the principle that

a rabbit out of a hat is based on the original in which

Portfolio management is based on the concept of

will disappear is based on the coincidence of two

Concordance printouts (from corpora websites) can confirm that something is a lexical

pattern. A concordance is simply a random sampling of extracts from spoken and written

texts based around a selected word or phrase. The concordance sample above confirms that

“is based on the” is indeed part of a common lexical pattern (or “lexical chunk”). The

concordance can also reveal more about the pattern. For example, it reveals that there is a

noun or noun phrase before and after “is based on” and note the similarity some of the

nouns that follow “is based on the”.

When demonstrating variable structures to students, a group of interchangeable items may

be shown as all being possible substitutions in a particular part of the structure. In the

example above, the five abstract nouns (idea, notion, etc.) are all shown as possible

variables for that part of the structure. These are known as slot-fillers and we should usually

keep the number of slot-fillers dealt with to around five (many more can be overwhelming)

and where possible, the slot-fillers should be related in some way, e.g., abstract nouns for

ideas/beliefs.

As mentioned earlier, the Lexical Approach focuses not on individual words but on clusters

or chunks of words. Part of the reason for this is that individual words, particularly many of

58  

those which are high in frequency, can change meaning depending on the other words they

are chunked together with. The five sentences below indicate how the word “take” can

change depending on the words it is associated with.

What‟s your take on this?

It didn‟t take the first time.

You need to take in the top a little bit.

Have you taken into account the cost?

Take the bull by the horns.

The Lexical Approach consists of three main types of chunks:

Collocations: words of the four main parts of speech which go together,

usually, but not always, two words.

Fixed expressions: expressions which cannot be changed or can only be

changed minimally. Most fixed expressions are idiomatic or are those used in polite

speech (e.g., How‟s it going?).

Semi-fixed expressions: expressions which have at least one slot into which

a number of different words or phrases can be inserted.

The list below indicates some of the lexical chunks in the five sentences with take. Below

those are examples of how two semi-fixed expressions can be broken down and expanded.

Collocations: take in, first time, little bit

Fixed expressions: take the bull by the horns

Semi-fixed expressions: It didn’t take the…, Have you taken into account…

It didn‟t take

work

the first

time

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happen

fit

succeed

slot fillers

Have you

taken into

account

considerati

on

the cost

price

rate

expense

slot fillers slot fillers

Studies have shown that learners tend to notice and remember words in chunks, particularly

the ones which they consciously or unconsciously recognize as variable (semi-fixed

expressions) because they can perceive that by changing the slot-filler, they can use the

expression in many ways (it‟s “highly generative”). Imagine a learner sitting at the dinner

table and he/she hears the following:

“Could you please pass the salt?”

“Could you please pass the butter?”

“Could you please pass the bread?”

“Could you please pass the ketchup?”

The learner will store the fixed part of the expression, “Could you please pass the _____?”

because their brain recognizes it as a structure which can be varied and applied in different

situations to achieve a communicative end. Likewise in this popular song, the third line

would be the most easily acquired by a learner because of its generative value, i.e., it can be

used in a variety of ways (with different names).

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday dear Maria

Happy birthday to you

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Implications for Teaching

The average educated native speaker knows about 40,000 individual words and between

250,000 to 300,000 lexical chunks. If you were to teach 10 items a lesson, five days a week,

it would take about 120 years to teach them all! This calculation is based on the

recommended number of new items that should be introduced in a lesson (10 – 15) and

does not even take into take into account the fact that studies have shown that a word

(lexical item) must be encountered or used about seven times before it is acquired!

What should become obvious is that we cannot teach the bulk of the lexicon. Then how do

language learners go from absolute beginners to native-speaker level in a relatively short

time, often in less than ten years? The answer is that most of the lexicon is not overtly

taught but incidentally learned. Learners are constantly acquiring new lexical items

whenever they come in contact with the language, be it listening to the teacher talk in class,

watching a film or using the internet. Therefore, if the majority of lexis is incidentally

learned, we should be focusing not on the tiny portion of the lexicon that we can “teach” in

the classroom but on strategies to make the acquisition of the bulk of the lexicon more

effective. How can we help students more easily acquire language during their exposure to

it, both in the classroom and outside of it?

The most important learning strategy we can give students is just to train them to NOTICE

lexical chunks during their exposure to language. First we have to raise their awareness of

the fact that language consists of lexical structures, then we need to define the main types

of lexical structures (collocations, fixed and semi-fixed expressions) and finally we need to

develop some activities that help them notice the lexical chunks in spoken and written texts.

Once students have located the lexical chunks, they need to be analyzed so the learners can

understand their construction, what they mean and how they are and might be used. Again,

in keeping with the idea that we are trying to give students strategies to notice and process

new language, the purpose of analyzing the chunks is not so much so that students

understand those particular chunks but, more generally, that they gain practice in doing this

sort of processing with new language and they develop some global knowledge of lexical

61  

structuring. To provide a simple example of this, if you have students find collocations in a

text and then determine their structure, they will not only understand those collocations but

they will be able to make some basic generalizations about collocations. Below are some

collocations extracted from this paragraph.

Collocation Form

lexical chunks Adj. + N

keeping with the idea V + Prep + N

give students

strategies

V + N + N

process (new)

language

V + N

gain practice V + N

new language Adj + N

global knowledge Adj. + N

simple example Adj. + N

basic generalizations Adj. + N

As mentioned above, students not only become aware of the particular collocations but they

should be able to make more general assumptions about lexical structures. For example,

two types of collocations seem to be most common in the previous paragraph, adjective +

noun and verb + noun. One might conclude that these are the most common types of

collocation in English, but further investigation of other texts would reveal that that might

be true for adjective + noun collocations, but the frequency of verb + noun collocations is

actually particular to this type of text, i.e., one that gives instructions.

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The final step in the clarification stage with new lexical items is to illuminate the usage by

supplying some slot-fillers. This is a good thing to do for several reasons. Firstly, it gives

students multiple new lexical chunks rather than just one. Also, it emphasizes the structure

by giving students other examples of it. And finally, it gives students an idea of the

generative value of the structure, i.e., all the different ways it can be used.

gain

practice

get

give

provide

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K. Nonkukhetkhong, R. B. Baldauf Jr and K. Moni (2006), Learner Centeredness in

Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Paper Presented at 26 Thai TESOL International Conference, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 19-21 January 2006,

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LEARNER-CENTEREDNESS IN TEACHING ENGLISH

AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

1. ABSTRACT

This paper reports research findings and discusses teachers’ perceptions and

implementation of the learner-centred approach to teaching English as a Foreign

Language in Thai secondary school contexts. Case studies of five inservice EFL

teachers from five contextually different public secondary schools

in Udon Thani, Thailand were developed from interviews, classroom observations and

teachers’ self-reporting. The findings suggest that teachers were attempting to

implement the learner-centred approach, but that they were not confident about its

underlying theory, and therefore the degree of the

implementation depended on how the teachers used their understanding of that

theory in their practice within the contextual constraints.

2. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

Under the Thai National Education Act (NEA) of B.E. 2542 (1999), the government has

recently launched a series of educational reforms with the aim of developing Thailand into

a knowledge-based society, which is a pre-requisite for becoming a knowledge-based

economy. One of these reforms focuses on the nature of the

learning process occurring in all subject areas at all levels of education, and is considered to

be the heart of all the changes being implemented. This "learnercentred approach" includes

concepts of self-education and life-long education. This change requires teachers to change

their traditional roles, requiring them to transform themselves from ‘tellers’ to ‘facilitators’

and from ‘materials users’ to ‘teaching materials creators’ in order to promote learners’

constructive self-learning. English as a foreign language teaching, which is covered by this

policy change, is becoming increasingly important in all aspects of Thai life for social,

economic as well as academic global communication. However, although Thai students

have learned English in formal education for at least ten years before they graduate from

the universities, recent research on the proficiency of the graduates suggests that the

English language curriculum in Thai schools and universities has not been meeting the

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demands for workplace English (Wiriyachitra, 2002; Keyurawong, 2002). While the new

policy is meant to address these needs, its potential impact on English proficiency, i.e., will

students be more proficient at graduation, remains to be seen.

Thai EFL teachers who are required to implement this learner-centred policy find

themselves faced with a number of challenges in both the environment in which they work

and related to the new goals they are asked to achieve. Traditionally, the Thai educational

system has focused on teacher dominated chalk and talk or rotelearning. Students are taught

to be passive, obedient and respectful to teachers. Teachers who are the products of the old

educational system may find it difficult to manage the role reversal required in the new

classroom where learners are the main players. Understandably, most Thai EFL teachers

still used the teaching methods they were familiar with, namely, a textbook-based,

grammar-translation approach where lessons and tests mostly focus on grammar structures,

vocabulary, and reading in order to be prepared for university entrance examinations

(Maskhao, 2002). Since Thai language-in-education policy has directed that there be a

change in the way English is taught, and programs are implemented, it is vital to evaluate

this change early in the dissemination stage, especially in Thai rural contexts where a

number of constraints remain unchanged, to understand the extent to which the learner-

centred approach actually is being implemented. The results of this study provide valuable

feedback for training pre-service teachers and for providing training and supervision for in-

service teachers in rural contexts in order to develop and provide relevant assistance to

meet the teachers’ needs. Furthermore, this information may also be useful for educators in

the Ministry of Education to alert them to the pre-service and in-service primary and

secondary school teachers’ needs that have to be met in order to support the effective

implication of this innovation.

3. LEARNER-CENTRED APPROACH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

The reform of the teaching-learning of English in Thailand follows the trend in

contemporary English language teaching pedagogies which have focused on developing

learners’ communicative competence and on promoting learning strategies and learner

autonomy in language classrooms. During 1970s-1980s the impact of learner-centeredness

in language teaching was evident with the development of communicative approaches

which shifted the attention of the teaching-learning processes from language form to

66  

language function, or to language use in accordance with the needs of learners (Savignon,

1997). This change in the approach to language teaching from traditional teacher-centred to

more learnercentred (e.g. Nunan, 1988; Tudor, 1996), which as Nunan (1988: 179) noted, is

“an offspring of communicative language learning” requires learners to participate and

negotiate actively in meaningful interaction in order to interpret and construct meaning by

themselves (Breen & Candlin, 1980).

The learner-centred approach is based on the idea that learners can learn better when they

are aware of their own goals. Thus, this model for language curriculum development shifts

from what should be done in a course of study to what is specifically done by language

teachers in their classes, through negotiation between

teachers and learners in the planning, implementation and evaluation of language courses

(Nunan, 1988). Students’ needs and learning styles are analysed and used for selecting

course content and teaching methodologies. Evaluation is an on going process in every

stage of teaching and learning. Self-assessment by each student is regarded as important as

assessment by teachers. Two key components of the learner-centred classroom are first,

placing more responsibility in the hands of the students to manage their own learning, and

second, teachers taking roles as facilitators of knowledge to help learners learn how to learn

rather than being the source of knowledge as was traditionally the case. Teachers can foster

learner autonomy by creating and maintaining a learning environment through

communicative tasks through which students can develop their language and learning skills

to become autonomous learners. Experts and researchers have demonstrated that the

learner-centred approach, which also promotes learner autonomy, can be applied in both

ESL (e.g., Banks, 2000; Tudor 1996) and EFL classes (e.g., Lin, 2002; Sumie, 2001).

However, it is unrealistic to assume that all learners will be able to make their own choices

about their learning process, especially young learners or those beginning levels. Thus,

negotiations between teachers and learners in developing a language program is not an all-

or-nothing process (Nunan and Lamb, 1996), but a continuum in which levels and degrees

of negotiation vary depending on the characteristics of the learners. In such a situation,

teachers have to be familiar with a wide range of teaching methodologies, learning

materials, study options, and be flexible and adaptable while school programs need to be

67  

resource rich to develop a successful learner-centred curriculum that caters for a wide range

of student needs (Tudor, 1996).

While teachers may be a central element in change, context is also very important, not all

innovations can be easily applied in every context, and the application of CLT is still

controversial in EFL, especially in Asian contexts (e.g., Anderson, 1993; Burnaby and Sun,

1989; Canh, 1999; Howard, 1996; Jung & Norton, 2002). In the Thai context, where there

is a shortage of qualified EFL teachers, the new policy has been mandated top-down. If the

policy is to be successful, there is an urgent need to investigate the English proficiency of

teachers and their capacity to develop learner autonomy through a learner-centred CLT

approach. This is particularly true for Thai rural contexts where training and resources are

likely to be fewer. Teachers need to be given a chance to reflect on how they perceive the

system should work and how they implement the learnercentred approach. This NEA

mandated reform is unlikely to be successfully undertaken without listening to the teachers’

voices and responding to their concerns.

4. THE STUDY

To listen to teachers’ voices on the learner-centred approach, case study data were collected

between November, 2004 and March, 2005 from five public secondary school in-service

EFL teachers working in the Udon Thani province using audiotaped interviews, at least five

classroom observations (three of which were videotaped) and self-reporting questionnaires.

It is important to note that all the teachers who participated in this study were recognised by

the schools’ principals as good, active and hard-working in developing the newly required

student-centred teaching and learning processes, and that the study focused on how they

perceived the new policy and how they put it into practice in their local contexts.

The participants were in their thirties and forties, were all BA or BEd graduates who had

studied in the field of English and were teaching in secondary grades 8 or 9. They had

taught English between 11-26 years, and like other Thai teachers, besides teaching English,

they were also required to do extra work to meet the criteria for salary increments and

promotion.

Amorn* taught in School A, which was the only school located in a provincial city. It was

well known for its academic strength and regarded as one of the leading schools in the city.

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The typical classes in this school were over-crowded with an average of 65 students.

Family backgrounds of the students varied but the majority of them were middle class

including professionals, merchants, government officers, employees and farmers. The

students’ motivation for studying was high with 80-90 per cent of students from this school

doing further studies at university level. (*Note that all teachers’ names are pseudonyms.)

Benja*, Charoen*, Duangjia* and Emon* taught in Schools B-E which were located in

rural areas. Schools B and D were district schools while Schools C and E were sub-district

schools. The majority of the students in all four schools were from medium to low income

families. Most of their parents were farmers and employees. Students had low motivation

and the per cent of the students going on to further studies at university level was medium

to low.

5. FINDINGS

5.1 The teachers’ perceptions of the learner-centred approach

One of the main objectives of this study was to draw out the participants’ perspectives on

the learner-centred approach and communicative language teaching. The five teachers who

participated in this study agreed with the policy of applying the learner-centred approach in

EFL classes. They all understood that through the learner-centred approach, they needed to

allow their students to take more responsibility for their own learning. However, they

believed that it was not possible for their students to learn everything by themselves, and

that teachers still played a major role in preparing the lessons, presenting the content,

modelling the examples and creating the activities for their students.

Amorn, Benja and Emon viewed language content, i.e., vocabulary, structure and

pronunciation, as the priority in learning and teaching English as a Foreign Language. They

believed that if the students learned enough content they would be able to use the content

for communication purposes in the future. They claimed that their EFL classes included not

only language content but also language skills, but they accepted that communicative

activities were rarely used. Charoen and Duangjai viewed communicative ability as the

goal of language learning. Both of them also regarded language content and language skills

as important and tried to teach content and skills in contexts and through communicative

activities. However, all of the teachers believed that they were more confident in teaching

language content than communicative activities. These findings indicate that the teachers

69  

need more assistance to understanding basic concepts in CLT and more practical input in

order to increase their confidence in developing communicative activities.

All of the teachers agreed that the learner-centred approach had the potential to enhance

their students’ positive attitudes towards learning English. They found that their students

were more self-confident in using English since they had been involved in a more activity-

based program. However, the teachers had not seen any improvement in the students’

English proficiency, and were concerned that in using this approach students would spend

too much time doing activities and would not learn sufficient language content, leading to

subsequent problems when they studied at higher levels.

The teachers believed that the learner-centred approach could not be strongly applied in

EFL classes because of the nature of English as a subject as it was difficult for their

students to learn English by themselves since it was not their first language. Students,

especially 7th-9th graders, still were dependant on teachers’ explanations. Moreover, the

teachers believed that the learner-centred approach was more suitable for bright and highly-

motivated students rather than slow learners. They felt students still waited for knowledge

from them and were not be able to make choices about their own learning. The teachers

also felt that the “no fail” policy and the new ways of assessment that focused on

performance testing and authentic assessment rather than on paper tests meant that a lot of

low motivated students ignored the lessons and did not prepare for the tests. As to the

impact on the teachers themselves, they believed that the reform made them more active in

the planning teaching and learning processes. They realized the need to change their role as

a knowledge transmitter to a facilitator or a coach to teach their students to think and learn

by themselves through a variety of activities and resources. However, they agreed that it

was challenging for them to implement this change while the other conditions, for example

inadequate teacher qualifications, students’ low motivation and poor English ability, large

classes and poorly resourced schools, still remained unchanged.

These findings suggest that the teachers wanted to teach their students to take the

responsibility for their own learning, but they clearly did not know how to involve their

students in teaching and learning processes, nor how to integrate this approach into their

EFL classes. They identified that to successfully implement the learner centred approach,

70  

the most important factors were the readiness of teachers and students to accept

responsibility for doing this, and the availability of resources. Personally, they felt that they

needed more time and support to gain insights into this approach in order to develop more

learner-centred teaching skills.

Given these teachers’ uncertainties, these findings suggest that the teachers had not been

sufficiently prepared to implement the new learner-centred policy either in theory or

practice. This ambiguity in the implementation of the curriculum innovation reinforces the

importance of being clear about the changes that are being required of teachers (Fullan,

1991). Although the teachers had positive attitudes towards the policy, it was difficult for

them as the policy implementers to adapt to the new policy requirements as they had not

been properly trained. Therefore, policy outcomes were dependent on individual teachers’

beliefs and understandings and this unavoidably impacted on how the teachers applied the

policy to their teaching techniques in their individual contexts.

5.2 The teacher’s implementations of the learner-centred approach

The five teachers from different contexts had similar perspectives on the policy, but how

they were able to apply the policy to practice, as evidenced in their self-report

questionnaires and the observed classes, varied from teacher to teacher and from class to

class. For example, data from the self-report questionnaires showed that besides using

vocabulary explanation, grammar explanation and structure drills, Benja reported the

highest frequency of using a variety of communicative activities in most of her lessons,

especially brainstorming, problem-solving and information gap filling. Duangjai reported

the most frequent use of role-play – in 78 per cent of lessons reflected on. She also reported

using task-based activities (61% of lessons), brainstorming (28%) and problem-solving

(22%) in her classes. Charoen reported applying role-play, brainstorming, problem-solving

and singing in less than 50 per cent of her classes. Amorn reported using role play in only

four lessons and simulation, problem-solving and presentation in only one lesson of each of

15 lessons she reflected on. Similarly to Amorn, Emon reported using less communicative

activities; only 12 per cent of lessons included role-play and selfstudy, and four per cent

included report/presentation. Taken at face value, these selfreposts suggest that some of the

teachers were being more communicative than their initial interview data might suggest.

71  

However, after a comparison of the self-report data with the interviews and classroom

observations, some gaps were identified between self-reports and the classroom

observations. Although, as we have seen, the teachers reported using a variety of the

communicative activities, most of their teaching techniques were still traditional, for

example grammar explanation, vocabulary explanation, translation, and whole class drills

and repetition. In most classes, the “communicative production of the target language by

students was in choral repetition or reading. English was used by the teachers only for basic

instruction and if it appeared in the texts. Instead, emphasis was on analytic study of

vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. This suggests that perhaps the teachers did not

really understand what communicative consist of.

The self-reports also indicated that group work and pair work were reported being used less

often than whole class activity. The four macro skills: listening, speaking, reading and

writing, were not taught equally. Three out of five teachers reported having a much greater

focus on reading and writing than on speaking and listening skills. Furthermore, other than

the selected textbooks, the teachers reported only infrequent use other teaching aids such as

authentic materials, handouts and audio-visual aids. These self-reports suggest that these

EFL classes were more text and teacher-dominated than learner-centred and

communicatively-oriented.

Moreover, although the teachers reported using communicative activities such as role-play,

information gap filling, brainstorming, simulation, group presentation and problem-solving,

the key finding relating to these activities evident in the data gathered from classroom

observations was the teachers interpreted those activities in practice in different ways. For

example, Benja labelled as role-play in an observed lesson asking her students to practise

the model dialogues in their handout and then present the dialogues to the class. Amorn

also reported using pair work and role-play in an observed lesson, but the researcher only

observed students reading the dialogues from their textbook, rather than doing real pair

work or role play.

Duangjai reported frequently using role-play, and from two observations of her lessons, it

could be said that she used this activity appropriately. She asked her students to study the

model dialogues and then to make their own dialogue and present to the class. Emon also

72  

applied the same concept of role-play as Duangjai but reported integrating the teaching

technique in only one lesson.

All of the teachers agreed that their EFL classes were still not fully learner centred and

communicative oriented because of the constraints of the local contexts. If there was a

continuum between teacher-centredness and the learner-centredness, they agreed that their

position would be somewhere in the middle. All of the teachers claimed that they applied

the learner-centred approach by involving their students in classroom activities as much as

they could. This suggests that the teachers interpreted the learner-centred approach at the

classroom level rather than at the course or curriculum level where students are supposed to

take part in decision making for course planning, implementation, and assessment and

evaluation.

However, Duangjai had made some progress in involving her students in planning lessons

by using a questionnaire asking the students about their interests, needs and learning styles.

After the semester ended, she also asked her students to evaluate her course. In terms of

self-assessment and peer-assessment, data from classroom observations showed some

evidence that all of the teachers had made some attempts to ask their students to monitor

their own answers as well as those of their peers. Emon provided an example of peer-

assessment when she provided an assessment form for her students to evaluate group

presentations in one of the lessons.

The evidence suggests that most of the teachers had not been sufficiently trained on how to

apply the aspects of the learner-centred approach and CLT effectively, and that this limited

the benefits of communicative activities provided by the students. This gap between intent

and practice and between knowledge and outcomes is something that teacher educators and

supervisors need to consider in both pre-service and in-service teacher education if

learners’ communicative skills and learning strategies are to be improved.

6. CONCLUSION

This study indicates that teachers are attempting to implement the new learnercentred

approach to CLT required by the 1999 Education Act. However, there are contextual

factors that directly impacted on the implementation of the learning reform policy that

illustrate that what may be appropriate to implement in other global contexts may not be

equally successfully in particular local situations. The fact that the policy has required both

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teachers and students to develop new teaching and learning strategies, but has not equipped

or supported schools with sufficient facilities, resources and learning environments, thus far

has made the policy goals unrealistic and all but impossible to achieve.

Thus, this study raises concerns that all stakeholders need to take in to account when policy

is being implemented in the dissemination stage. Policy cannot be successfully

implemented without listening to the teachers’ voices as they are the key agents of the

change. If the policy of learning reform is to be successful, intensive and consistent teacher

development must be organised and sufficient resources must be allocated so that all

schools, especially those in rural areas, can meet policy objectives.

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Tuong, V., (2005). Advantages and disadvantages of using computer network

technology in language teaching. Journal of sciences. Foreign languages. XXI (), pp.61-66

75  

Advantages and disadvantages of using computer network technology in language

teaching.

Computer technology has been used in language teaching since the 1980’s. However, with

the advent of Internet, the computer has been transformed from a tool for information

processing and display to a tool for information processing and communication. The instant

worldwide connections enabled by the internet have changed the way teachers and learners

work in their teaching and learning of second/foreign language. Indeed, the use of the

Internet and the World Wide Web in second and foreign language instruction has been

increasingly recognized. A number of applications of computer network technology have

been utilized such as multimedia, email, electronic journals, databases, World Wide Web,

chat, audio and video conferencing etc. This paper will investigate both advantages and

disadvantages of incorporating such technology in language courses. The computer

network has offered language teachers and learners a source of authentic materials, tools for

communication and collaboration and tools for improving language skills. First and

foremost, the computer networked learning environment facilitates the language teaching

and learning by providing teachers and learners with valuable sources of materials.

Teachers can exploit multimedia to support their language teaching. Teachers also integrate

authentic materials on numerous Websites such as http://www.geocities.com,

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ etc. into language lessons. With regard to learners, they are

exposed to a wide range of resources such as online dictionaries, thesauri, machine

translation software, which enables learners to learn vocabulary while reading.

In addition, quite a few authentic language journals such as The Modern Language Journal,

The Internet TESL Journal etc. are available on the net and databases. The use of the

Internet can remove the greatest obstacle in the access to the authentic written word, which

is the price. Indeed, not all language students, especially those in English as foreign

language (EFL) contexts cannot afford to subscribe to any foreign newspaper. Therefore,

electronic newspapers are a great chance for educators and learners because they are easily

accessible and almost free. Besides, learners can obtain lecture notes and prepare for

lessons beforehand or review the lessons from anywhere at any time suitable for them.

Secondly, computer network has been seen as a useful tool for communication.

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Advances in computer technology have created remarkable new ways to connect language

learners. Asynchronous and synchronous communication enable language learners can

communicate rapidly and inexpensively with other language learners or speakers of the

target language around the world Warschauer and Healy, 1998). From these kinds of

communication, positive affective benefits for learners are reported in the foreign

language classroom. In fact, the advantage of computer mediated communication (CMC)

brought about by Internet is that learners are given an opportunity to interact with others

without interruptions, time pressure or social anxiety. Moreover, the use of technology

redistributes teacher and classmate attentions so that less able students can become more

active participants in class. The on-line environment also enhances communication between

teachers and learners. Warchauter (1997) explored the use of email between a teacher and

her students in a graduate of English as second language (ESL) writing class. He found that

using email enables teacher to provide students with detailed and rapid feedback on the

immediate problems and questions they had.

Computer- based communication technology also provides tools for language learners to

improve their language skills. Learners are exposed to numerous software programs to

improve their reading, listening, speaking skills and grammar knowledge. For example,

students in the networked writing project by Beuvois (1998) display more fluidity of

conversation, more use of complex sentences, and more selfdisclosure. Lunde (1990) also

showed that Japanese students enrolled in a computer mediated communication project

showed improvement in reading comprehension. Besides, learners can use audio- visual

technologies to correct and/or enhance pronunciation of words in the target language. The

use of technology in foreign language learning also appears to influence the development of

communicative skills. In fact, computers can offer foreign language learners more than

drills; “they can be a medium of real communication in the target language, including

composing and exchanging messages with other students in the classroom or around the

world” (Oxford, 1990, p. 79). By involving in an email exchange with a native speaker,

learners receive plenty of authentic target language input from their exchange partner while

maintaining the unrehearsed communicative context.

The network environment also enables a new form of language learning i.e. distance

learning. Indeed, the Web has created the capability of opening classroom doors to the

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world. Online environments and the use of the WWW provide students with skills such as

online communication, discussion, problem analysis, problem solving, critical thinking and

negotiation of meaning.

Distance learning is especially of benefits in language learning because not everyone can

afford to study abroad and explore the language cultures. In contrast, with the application of

the Internet and the WWW, students can attend foreign language classes from home

without having to go to the country where the target language is spoken. One of the main

reasons for special interest of foreign language educators in distance learning is that

technology makes it possible to bring the target culture into the classroom and thus, closer

to students. Language learning is a multifaceted social and cultural phenomenon; therefore,

one of the most essential pedagogical principles of language teaching is one that

emphasizes the study of language in a cultural context because language and culture are

inextricable and independent.

Sanaouri and Lapkin (1992) found that in an email exchange project between these students

and native French speakers, students assumed increased responsibility for their learning and

broaden their cultural knowledge. Indeed, virtual trips enabled by the Internet offer students

an opportunity to visit countries and learn about the people, language, and culture.

Undoubtedly, understanding the culture of the target language enhances the understanding

of the language.

However, the discussion would be incomplete without addressing the disadvantages or

obstacles related to the issue of using computer network technology in language teaching

and learning in terms of financial barriers, content considerations, technical features and

pedagogical perspectives.

The most challenge is the issue of access. Students must have computer and Internet access.

Therefore, they will meet with difficulties when technology is not always as reliable as it

should be and Internet access is not always available. This situation is commonplace in

quite a few English as foreign language (EFL) contexts. Financial barriers include the cost

of setting up a network in the school, which can be expensive.

Financial barriers also include the investment in training. The use of the Internet in

language teaching and learning requires some technological knowledge and computer skills

78  

from both teachers and learners. Insufficient computer skills from students have affected

the quality of online collaboration of Lee (2004)’s project.

Teachers may be reluctant to use technology in classroom because many of them have not

been trained to use technology. Others do not understand how to use the new technologies.

This requires school investments for training in this area, which is beyond the current

capacity for schools in EFL contexts. Moreover, searching for materials online can be

sometimes time- consuming and frustrating. Many learners find it difficult to read papers

on a computer screen. Also, it is easy to become bombarded with too much information

with little control over the quality and accuracy the contents. Therefore, a certain technical

expertise is required from both teachers and students. More importantly, little is known

about how to make use of Internet- based materials or how to design tasks that allow the

learners to explore these materials and yield expected learning outcomes. There are still

limitations on navigation and hyperlink structures in the networked learning environment,

which can make learners get lost. Besides, communication on the Web will be difficult

when the network is slow at peak times. Findings from two pilot studies by Kotter (2001)

which investigated the use of Internet- based audio conferencing and email by distance

language learners at the British Open University show that about one fifth of students

dropped out because of technical problems in terms of the speed of the network and the

reliability of the software. Another challenge to the use and implementation of computer-

assisted language learning (CALL) in the foreign language classroom is the pedagogical

changes. The use of networked computing environment in second or foreign language

learning will lead to the different ways of teaching and learning from the traditional

language classrooms. In fact, the nature of the space of the language learning environment

has undergone a paradigm shift- from traditional blackboard classrooms to computer labs-

and so the position as teachers/learners within that space has changed also. In this

environment, teacher’s role underwent a significant shift from a knowledge giver to a

facilitator. The students took over the responsibility for their own language learning and

became more active and more autonomous learners.

The changes in pedagogy, teachers’ and learners’ roles have implied the difficulties of the

network environment in EFL contexts. For instance, Conrad (1999) finds that first semester

students in regular foreign language classes favored repetition and structured activities over

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more creative linguistic activities through the Internet. In most of EFL traditional

classrooms, students are accustomed to the traditional language teaching style, which is

dominated by a teacher- centered, book- centered and an emphasis on rote memory.

Therefore, the application of new teaching methodologies that are more learner- centered

requires the re-evaluation of the role of the FL teachers and learners in a CALL

environment. Despite these obstacles, what has been offered by the computer network

technology is far too beneficial to be ignored. There is no doubt that the computer network

technology e.g. the Internet and the WWW offers teachers and learners vast amount of

materials and communication possibilities to enhance their language teaching and learning.

For the successful integration of the networked environment in language courses, both

teachers and learners need to be prepared to adopt new roles and use the available

technology in appropriate ways.

Teachers should be prepared with professional skills which include pedagogical and

technical skill because the more enthusiastic and more knowledgeable language teachers

are, the more successfully they can implement Internet in the language classroom. Learners

can only benefit from technology – based activities provided that these activities are

relevant to their needs and interest. In short, the decision whether and how to use Web-

based materials, must be based on a clear pedagogical rationale, while technological and

developmental issues need to be carefully considered.

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