Task-Based Materials – One of the most challenging tasks constantly facing language teachers is how to capture the interest and to stimulate the imagination of their students so that they will be more motivated to learn.
To this end, the ongoing search for and the development of meaningful teaching materials, which often can be used to supplement the textbook for a course, is a critical planning activity to be done by teachers.
This paper reviews two major aspects of teaching materials, which, as many language researchers believe, may contribute to the overall effectiveness of the learning process because the learner sees the activity as relevant to his or her learning needs.
Are the materials derived from authentic sources, reflecting real- world language? Are the materials task-based, involving the learner in the practical use of the language? Following this discussion, some examples of a classroom activities in which students can use authentic task- based materials to enhance their language learning are presented.
There currently is a wide array of teaching materials available to EFL/ ESL teachers to accommodate their various needs and their unique teaching situations. Many of these materials are commercially produced. These can include EFL/ ESL texts, audiotapes with accompanying workbooks, videotapes with student worksheets, and various Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) programs. There are materials available for teaching reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, vocabulary-building, survival English, cross-cultural communication, pronunciation, business English, TOEFL preparation, and various other content-based English courses.
After reading “Task-Based Materials” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.
In this section you will find Articles Worksheets that may help you in your classes. Some of these worksheets have been taken from the internet and some of them I have prepared myself. If you know a great worksheet that it is not here let me know and I shall place it here. You can follow me on my social medias, the links are on the homepage.
Language classes need to be lively, since language itself is a matter of lively thinking process and everyday routine. Still sometimes language classes go dry-more so when it is a second language classroom. There are many ways in which this can be resolved; use of worksheets is one of them.
Worksheet helps an SL classroom in following ways:
1. Immediate Practical Use
The taught lesson can immediately be put in use with the help of a worksheet. This will enhance the understanding and make it more apt for the students. After all we learn a language in order to use it. Worksheets would thus provide with an apt sense of meaning and so the learning will get consolidated.
2. Quick Exposure
An exposure to use the learnt things will work as a motivating factor. Exposure is a very important and crucial thing in Second Language Learning.
3. Brainstorm
Working upon the worksheets functions as a brainstorm for both, learner and teacher. A learner gets to know whether she has understood the taught things properly. She is able to raise questions, seek solutions and thereby to be clearer about it. A teacher, on the other hand, comes to know whether whatever she has taught has been received in a desired way. If not, she could repeat or revise her own plan/way to teach the same.
4. A monotony breaker
Worksheets break the monotony of lecture mode. They involve students in an active way. So the interest level goes very high. this makes the atmosphere of the classroom more motivating, free of learner’s anxiety, and communicative, which are some very essential things for an SL classroom.
After reading “Article Worksheets” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.
How Families Pass Indigenous Languages – Sit in on any Indigenous-language class across Canada, and you’ll hear many, I’d argue almost all, adult students say they are picking up their language in order to teach their children or future children.
Making sure the generations to come have what we did not seems to be one of the most urgent motivations for learning our languages. As adults, we can almost handle that we, ourselves, are not speakers. But when we think about the pain and loss that has caused in our life, we know we would never want the same thing for our little ones.
When I applied for my first Mohawk-language course, in 2017, I stated similar reasons for wanting to learn: “My mother and grandmother didn’t grow up with the language or teachings,” I wrote. “I would like to break that cycle within my family and spread that knowledge, as much as I can, to my nieces and nephews and my own children, eventually.” Although I’ve never really wanted children, I have thought that maybe I would change my mind — if only so that I could be in a position to give a child what I didn’t have growing up.
At some point, I came to peace with the fact that I would not be passing my language on to my own children, but I hope that my role as an auntie will allow me to share what I know about our culture and our language with my nieces and nephews as they grow. My sisters, each with two children under five, don’t have the time to learn a new language while juggling work, kids, and a global pandemic, so I feel that it is a part of my duty (besides being the cool aunt) to pass along what I can.
I have always loved that, in my language, Kanyen’kéha, there is no word for “aunt.” When referring to “my mother,” I say “ake’nihstéha.” When I speak to her, I call her “istah.” In our language, we also call our aunties “istah.” There is no differentiation between “mom” and “auntie,” but, in contrast, there are different words for “uncle” and “father.” To me, that speaks to the ways that we value the older women in our lives and the role that those women (blood relation or not) play in our growing and learning — in the influencing of who we will become.
After reading “How Families Pass Indigenous Languages” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.
Although the primary focus is to provide a thematic based approach to learning reading and writing, the activities will also serve as catalysts for speaking and listening activities. Hands On! is not a curriculum, but one of many resources that can be used to teach learners how to read and write.
His collection of activities was developed for instructors working with adult ESL learners who have had little or no opportunity to develop reading and writing skills.
The chapters focus on topics usually explored in any adult ESL class, although references are made to areas and names within Nova Scotia. The primary focus of this resource is to provide a thematic-based approach to learning reading and writing. This book is not a curriculum, but one of many resources that can be used to teach learners how to read and write.
Chapters 1–5 are in sequential order for learners at a very basic level. Each of these five chapters builds on the previous chapter. Chapters 6–14 are in no particular order and should be selected according to learners’ level, needs and interests.
After reading “A Collection of ESL Literacy Activities” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.
Criticism over bad English – Thai schools are pushing for online learning to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but a recent English lesson posted online is just proof that basic English levels remain poor in the country. The video of a Thai teacher with poor pronunciation spread across the internet, with some saying she should be a student rather than a teacher.
The teacher went back and forth from Thai to English for some of the lesson, but when she spoke in English, much of it was unintelligible. The Pathom 6 class was recorded for Distance Learning TV, or DLTV, with a live class. Many students seemed to stare blankly during the lesson. Even a native English speaker can’t understand much of what she’s saying.
On the Thai Visa thread, some people say that the teacher tried her best to speak English, adding that many foreigners spend years in Thailand and cannot speak Thai. Others rebutted, saying that while she’s trying her best, she’s teaching a language to students and “should get it right”.
Keep reading the rest of the story at The Thaiger.
After reading “Foreign student industry faces dramatic drop”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs. And visit my channel by YouTube.
The call has gone out for the creation of a global network to promote Rotuman language and culture in this current Covid-19 pandemic environment.
The coronavirus pandemic failed to stop the inaugural Rotuman Language Week in New Zealand this year.
Instead Covid-19 transformed how the islanders celebrated their language and culture last week.
Rotuman was the first of nine Pacific language weeks and the islanders took to the internet to celebrate the historic milestone.
Rotumans around the world were leveraging tools like Zoom, Facebook, Youtube and WhatsApp to tune in to the events in Aotearoa.
It’s typically a community affair but the New Zealand Rotuman Fellowship Group (NZRG) and the Auckland Rotuman Fellowship Group (ARFG) were forced to think virtual.
An event that’s meant to bring the community together was observed apart.
Programmes including Rotuma Day celebrations on 13 May were quietly marked by islanders in their bubbles across the world.
Instead of sitting in a church, as the pastor prayed for the people and the weeklong event, Rotumans watched and listened through an app on their phones, computers and television monitors.
Language week celebrations in Aotearoa will be different this year.
Thousands of Rotumans marked last week with thanksgiving services, language lessons and videos, arts, panel discussions, dances and youth-led initiatives.
But Rotuman language advocates say the celebrations should not stop there.
English rose on Harvey farm – When Zoë Allington was first introduced to her in-laws, she sat quietly around the table listening to them talk in farming jargon — something the English teacher said was almost as alien to her as a foreign language.
She did not have a farming background, nor had she ever really experienced the world of agriculture — until she met her husband Travis.
The couple now co-run Allington Family Farm, a Merino sheep farm in the hills of Harvey, and supply sustainable, ethical and locally produced lamb to West Australians.
What started as a hobby farm with 100 sheep has now progressed into a flock of 1500 breeding ewes. The country farmers have even started practicing Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) — where people buy shares in the farm’s produce and receive a portion of the harvest in return.
Originally from the UK, Zoë was teaching English in the Falkland Islands, a collection of islands off the coast of South America, when she met her future husband — a sheep farmer from Australia.
Learn more about this topic by reading in The West.
After reading “English rose on Harvey farm” you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs, and visit my YouTube channel.
article taken from the Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2nd
The Birth of AL
Perhaps no other field in the humanities or the social sciences has experienced so much debate in coming to terms with its self-image as has applied linguistics (AL). The term AL was created in the United States and in Britain more or less at once. In the latter half of the 1950s. In 1956, the University of Edinburgh founded the School of Applied Linguistics. Under the direction of J.C. Catford, and in 1957 the Center for AL was founded in Washington, DC, directed by Charles Ferguson. While the two organizations differed in scope, both shared the general aim of promoting and increased the teaching of the English language. From the start AL was a field not only related to the teaching and learning of a specific language – English.
The field has not only grown to include the teaching and learning of languages other than English, but it has also broadened its vision to include more than language teaching and learning. Rampton (1995b: 234), for instance, contends that the British School of applied linguistics is shifting away from traditional concerns with pedagogy, linguistics and psychology, and towards a more general interest in social phenomena.
In fact, there appears to be a general consensus among those who consider themselves to be applied linguists that, in addition to its traditional base, the field encompasses such areas as language policy and language planning, lexicography and lexicology, speech therapy, multilingual and language contact studies, language assessment, second language acquisition, literacy, forensic linguistics, and some would even include stylistics, genre studies, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, language socialization, conversation analysis and translation and interpreting.
Journals
The field counts a number of internationally recognized journals among its publishing organs, including:
These journals, among others, support editorial policies that have paralleled the expansion of the field and regularly publish articles in many of the areas listed above. Other journals, such as:
Have maintained their focus on empirical and, to a lesser extent, theoretical studies, relating to the acquisition and teaching of languages beyond the first. At least two journals focus primarily on the teaching and learning of English:
Another sign of the robustness of the field is the increasing number of monograph and book-length volumes published by important academic and commercial presses, including:
There has also been remarkable growth in the number of universities around the world offering graduate degrees in AL. The field continues not to have the precise nature of what is AL as an academic discipline, and how it relates to other domains of linguistics. What, for example, are the fundamental statements around which the field coheres? What is precisely applied in AL? Is there a theoretical component to applied linguistics or is it only a practical discipline?
The basis of AL
The early Edinburgh School considered applied linguists to be consumers rather than producers of linguistic theory. The task of AL activity was to interpret the findings of linguistic research on how languages are learned and used. Thus, to inform language teaching (Corder 1973: 10). In arguing for an expanded understanding of the domain of AL to include not just language teaching but also stylistics, language disabilities and translation, Crystal (1980) proposed that, not only could the findings of linguistic research be made relevant to these areas, but so could its theories and research methods.
AL and LA
As AL expanded its interests beyond the domain of language teaching, it became apparent that disciplines other than linguistics would need to be drawn on in order to develop in-depth understandings and solutions to real-world language problems. Eventually, Widdowson, a disciple of the Edinburgh School, proposed an important distinction between applied linguistics and linguistics applied.
The latter concept is closer to the original understanding of the term ‘applied linguistics’; that is, it assumes that language-based real-world problems can be solved exclusively through the application of linguistic theory, methods and findings (Widdowson 1980). The former term recognizes that, while linguistics offers important insights and solutions to language problems, and continues to form the core of applied linguistics, research from other disciplines, such as psychology, anthropology, sociology (and perhaps even philosophy and literary research), can also profitably be brought to bear on these problems.
In fact, according to Widdowson (2000a, 2000b), there is good reason to reject the understanding of AL as linguistics applied, since most language-based problems cannot reasonably be solved through the application of linguistic principles alone. According to Widdowson, the applied linguist serves as a mediator between linguistics and language teaching in order to convert the abstract into knowledge that is useful for pedagogical practices (Widdowson 200a: 28). This perspective, then, seems to mirror the earlier ‘applied linguists as consumer’ interpretation proposed by Corder, however, Widdowson recognizes the necessity for AL to draw on disciplines outside of linguistics in order to develop its insights and recommendations.
The Difference between AL and LA
One reason for drawing a distinction between applied linguistics and linguistics applied is the worry that, as ‘linguistics itself expands the domain of its own research interests beyond theorizing about autonomous and abstract grammatical systems to recognition of the relevance of context for language use and language learning, the narrow interpretation of AL as linguistics applied could well make redundant the work of applied linguists (Widdowson 200a).
Furthermore, the need for ALto draw on disciplines outside of linguistics means that, unlike linguistics proper, it is a genuinely interdisciplinary field. A more appropriate way, according to Spolsky (1980: 73) is to mark the distinction between AL and linguistics proper. To recognize that the former is a ‘relevant linguistics’, while the latter believes there is merit in the autonomous study of language as an object in itself divorced from any real-world use.
The Activities of Applied Linguistics
Another matter of some controversy concerns the brand of linguistics that should inform the activities of AL. Widdowson (2000a: 29-30), for example, argues that generative theory is relevant to language teaching. But it is not the task of theoretician to demonstrate its relevance. The applied linguist is the mediator between theory and practice. He or she is charged with the responsibility of realizing this task.
Widdowson contends, for example, that Chomsky’s rejection of language learning as habit formation, and recognition that acquisition is a ‘cognitive and creative process’. Which learners infer possible grammars on the basis of input and biologically determined constraints, has had a major impact on language teaching practice. While learners most certainly draw inferences based on what they hear and see. Even after a good deal of research is not clear that their inferences are constrained in the ways predicted by generative theory.
What is more, Chomsky’s understanding of ‘creativity’ is quite technical in nature. And it does not reflect the kind of creativity that others, such as Harris (1981), Bakhtin (1981) or Kramsch (1995), recognize as genuine linguistic creativity. For example, the ability to create new meanings and forms, especially in the domain of metaphor. And it is this kind of creativity that might be more relevant to the language learning process.
Other Lines of Linguistic Research
Grabe (1992) proposes that, in addition to generative research, AL draw upon work in three other lines of linguistic research. Functional and typological theories as seen in the work of Halliday, Chafe, Givon, Comrie and Greenberg. Anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics, represented in the research of Labov, Hymes, Ochs, Gumperz, Fishman and the Milroys. And research which results in descriptive grammars based on corpus linguistic analyses (corpora). Interestingly, this latter type of research is criticized by Widdowson (2000a: 24) as too narrow in scope. Because its focus is on what is done rather than on what is known. Although it has to be added that Widdowson sees some relevance for corpus linguistics. Since it is at least able to reflect a partial view of how language is deployed in the real world.
What agreement has been achieved seems to point to AL as a field whose scope of interest is the development of solutions to language-based problems in the real world. To realize its goal. It draws on theoretical, methodological and empirical research from a wide array of disciplines, including (but not limited to) linguistics.
One problem with perspective. Is that it is not clear that all of the work that refers to itself as AL can legitimately be seen as solutions to real-world problems. For instance, some of the leading journals in applied linguistics publish articles on; genre studies, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics that are potentially of interest to applied linguists. But in and of themselves not do purport to solve real-world language problems.
Other Programs of Applied Linguistics
The same can be said of the programs of the important international conferences in the field. The argument could be made. That this type of research, while not really applied in nature, is at least relevant to AL. Therefore could be included within its domain. Yet, if the problem-solving focus is to be distinguishing feature of applied linguistics. We might even question whether an area such as second language acquisition research should be legitimately included in applied linguistics.
Some SLA researchers, especially those working within the framework of Universal Grammar. Have in fact claimed that their project is not about solving real-world problems. And it might better be situated within the domain of theoretical linguistics. This argument is not without merit. This sort of research helps us understand the constraints that operate in L1 acquisition also hold forL2. This is not to suggest that SLA research is not relevant to applied linguistics. But it does point to the complexities entailed in deciding whether a particular research program meets the criteria for inclusion within applied linguistics.
Laying the Foundation Of Applied Linguistics
In laying the foundation for linguistics as the science of languages. Saussure proposed that if linguistics was to operate as a legitimate scientific enterprise. It would be necessary to overlook how people actually use and learn language in their life-world. He thus created the illusion of language as an autonomous object, akin to the objects of the physical universe, so it could be studied in accordance with the principles of scientific enquiry.
This viewpoint has dominated much of the research in linguistics to the present day. Kaplan (1980a: 64) believes, however, that despite an assumption that AL research adheres to the principles of scientific investigation. Applied linguists might, on occasion, have to sacrifice these principles to find solutions to language-based human problems. Kaplan (1980a: 63) says that AL is ‘the most humanistic breed of linguists’. Perhaps, then, applied linguistics would be more appropriately situated alongside literary, historical […] rather than as a social, science.
Even though a humanistic applied linguistics manages to bring people back into the picture. It continues to foreground language over people as its proper object of study. Another way to conceptualize applied linguistics as the human science is to think of it as interested in the theoretical, as well as empirical, study of people as linguistic beings.
The Study of People as Linguistic Beings
AL, according to this view, investigates how people come to participate linguistically with other people. In communities of practice and how they mediate their activities within these communities. It also seeks to uncover and understand the sources and consequences of problems that arise when people experience difficulties. It also undertakes to understand how people succeed or fail in their attempts to participate in new communities of practice. And it seeks to develop appropriate means to assist them in their efforts. All of this clearly distinguishes applied linguistics from linguistics proper, which has as its object of study language, not people.
The centrality of language
As a branch of linguistics, applied linguistics retains a primary focus on language. This may seem like an obvious point to make, but as our research agenda in language teaching and learning broadens, it is a point that is sometimes easy to forget. The search for more effective classroom management techniques, and ongoing debates about education policy, for instance, are some of the things that might sometimes overlap with the remit of applied linguistics.
The same applies to emerging scholarship that problematises inequalities inside the classroom and beyond it, or the continuing work investigating psychology of language teachers and learners. Such crossover can enrich both applied linguistics and the adjoining disciplines. That said, work carried out under the banner of applied linguistics must explicitly connect to language, and it must show how its findings and impact are particular to language teaching and learning, as opposed to teaching and learning in general.
The relevance to the real world
This is what distinguishes ‘applied’ from ‘theoretical’ linguistics. Theoretical linguistics concerns itself with an abstract understanding of how language functions; applied linguistics is about taking those insights and finding answers to the ‘so what?’ and ‘now what?’ questions. The number of ‘real-world problems’ (or situations) to which linguistics is being applied has definitely proliferated. It now includes topics such as lexicography (the production of dictionaries), automated translation, human-machine interaction, and speech therapy, among others. All these actions certainly fall under the applied linguistics responsibility, but for my purposes as a language educator, I use a more restricted definition: in the context of language education, applied linguistics is the branch of linguistics that seeks to find implications of linguistics theory for language teaching and learning.
And here we have an overview of AL by Professor Philip Shaw, Stockholm University, Department of English.
Applied Linguistics according to Wikipedia
AL is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, psychology, communication research, anthropology, and sociology.
AL is an interdisciplinary field. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, sign linguistics, language assessment, literacies, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, language planning and policy, interlinguistics, stylistics, language teacher education, pragmatics, forensic linguistics and translation.
The tradition of applied linguistics established itself in part as a response to the narrowing of focus in linguistics with the advent in the late 1950s of generative linguistics, and has always maintained a socially-accountable role, demonstrated by its central interest in language problems.[1]
Although the field of applied linguistics started from Europe and the United States, the field rapidly flourished in the international context.
The Basis of Applied Linguistics according to Wikipedia
AL first concerned itself with principles and practices on the basis of linguistics and it was thought as “linguistics-applied” at least from the outside of the field. Applied Linguistics, in the 1960s, was expanded to include language assessment, language policy, and second language acquisition. As early as the 1970s, applied linguistics became a problem-driven field rather than theoretical linguistics, including the solution of language-related problems in the real world. By the 1990s, applied linguistics had broadened including critical studies and multilingualism. Research in applied linguistics was shifted to “the theoretical and empirical investigation of real world problems in which language is a central issue.”
In the United States, applied linguistics also began narrowly as the application of insights from structural linguistics—first to the teaching of English in schools and subsequently to second and foreign language teaching. Leonard Bloomfield promulgated he linguistics applied approach to language teaching, in which he developed the foundation for the Army Specialized Training Program, and by Charles C. Fries, who established the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Michigan in 1941.
AL, in 1946 became a recognized field of studies in the aforementioned university. In 1948, the Research Club at Michigan established Language Learning: A Journal of AL, the first journal to bear the term applied linguistics. In the late 1960s, applied linguistics began to establish its own identity as an interdisciplinary field of linguistics concerned with real-world language issues. The new identity was solidified by the creation of the American Association for Applied Linguistics in 1977.
After reading “Applied Linguistics”, you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs. And visit my channel by YouTube.
According to Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers (1986), to understand the difference between method and approach we need to assess the history of language teaching methods. It lays out a context for the analysis of present-day Method, Approach, Design, and Procedure. Given the historical point of view, arguments on how to teach foreign languages have led to the reflection of what modern methods are based on. The shift towards oral proficiency, rather than reading and writing, is a good example of one of the changes that occurred throughout the history of language teaching.
Linguistic or psychological theories have been used to advance a practical or more philosophical level of a second language (throughout this article the term ‘second language’ will be addressed as L2 and ‘first’ or ‘native language’ as L1) teaching method; in some others, the practices in the classroom have led to these advancements. Many efforts have been made to abstract the nature of a method. Some investigated the association between theory and practice. While others looked upon applying procedures; these forged the branch of Second Language Acquisition: one of the main fields of applied linguistics. (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 1-14).
Method, Approach, Design and Procedure
Richards and Rodgers (1986) review that almost all language teaching methods follow the same logic, therefore a thorough investigation into their essence is necessary. The whole is called the Method and is divided into three categories, approach, design, and procedure.
Approach is the philosophical branch of the method that accounts for cognition. It allows one to consider the conditions of language learning and the nature of language.
Design represents the general aims of a method: the syllabus, exercises, ways of teaching, educational material, as well as the roles of teachers and students.
The third and final category is Procedure. This pertains to practices, behaviors, and techniques administered and observed in the classroom. Consequently, a method, that contains these aspects, generalizes a strategy for teaching L2 in the classroom (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 14-29).
Difference between Method and Approach – Learning Theory
Furthermore, Richards and Rodgers (1986) emphasize that in learning theory, the preoccupation is with the central learning processes and the circumstances that are believed to promote language learning. In language theory, there is great interest in a model of linguistic competence. A concern with the basic aspects of linguistic structure, and an application of language.
Teachers can develop their own teaching techniques, with a knowledge of language and a theory of learning. They can continually change, vary, and modify the forms of teaching given the students’ reports, their reactions to the educational practices, the teacher’s perception of learning, the lack of time for lessons, the students absorptions of the tasks, etc. Teachers who hold a similar understanding of approach can apply different concepts within the procedure.
Therefore defining Method, Approach, Design, and Procedure, comes to: approach does not define procedure; theories do not command procedures. Design links approach with procedure (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 18-19).
The Nature of Languageand the Nature of Language Learning
Richards and Rodgers highlighted that there is a minimum of three contrasting theoretical views about the nature of languageand the nature of language learning. The first is the structural view, a view in which language is treated as a system of elements that intrinsically encode meaning. The second is the functional view, in which the emphasis is on verbalization instead of grammar. The third, the interactional view, focuses its efforts on the communication between people (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 16-17).
According to Richards and Rodgers, despite the fact that some theories of the nature of language may support a teaching method. Many other methods come from a theory of language learning. A theory of learning that supports an approach understands the psycholinguistic processes connected to language learning and the conditions that encourage learning. For example, Process-oriented theories are created by “habit formation, deduction, assumption, hypothesis, testing and generalization” (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 18). The theories that focused on the environment in which language learning occurs and the nature of human beings are called condition-oriented theories (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 18).
Many views have come across L2 teaching methods. In 2009 Patsy Martin Lightbown and Nina Spada describe the importance of the inborn knowledge of the students. Other authors treat the role of the environment as crucial. While some others seek to combine the native input of the students and the environmental aspects in a description of how the acquisition of the L2 develops. Combining these two aspects, many theories of the nature of language learning consider that the acquisition of L2 is similar to the acquisition of the L1 (Lightbown & Spada, 2009).
Difference between Method and Approach – Method requires Approach
According to Richards and Rodgers, forming a method requires an approach to organize a design. Design is where language content is chosen and organized in a syllabus. According to the draft of Sinclair and Renouf for “a syllabus to have an important role in education, it should […] be as independent of linguistic or pedagogical theory as possible, and the theoretical background should be seen primarily as a vehicle for the clear expression of the syllabus” (Sinclair & Renouf, 1988). The syllabus is where the tasks and teaching activities are created; it is also where the roles of students, teachers, and educational material take place (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 20). Method, Approach, Design, and Procedure all have to thank syllabus for its major role.
Difference between Method and Approach –Syllabus
The syllabus can, according to J. D. Brown (2006), be formed in many different ways. The Structural syllabus concentrates on grammatical forms (the Classical and the Grammar-Translation Methods are perfect examples). Both maintaing its base on the idea that grammatical structures are essential for the learning of an L2. It selects exercises and suitable texts, starting with those structures considered easier to the most difficult. The Situational syllabus focuses on the issue that language is always found in context or in a special situation (the Direct and Audio-Lingual Methods fall into this category).
Consequently, their texts and books are structured around situations, something quite different from the Topical syllabus. Which seeks to structure its texts and books around topics. The Functional syllabus, as the name suggests, focuses on functions, which are the things we usually do with language, such as ordering something or describing the things around us (the Communicative Language Teaching Method is a good example).
There is also the Notional syllabus, the Skill-based syllabus, and the Task-based syllabus, which are based on distinct day-to-day activities that students need to perform. These activities can include anything from taking the bus to go to the bank (a perfect example for this syllabus is the Task-Based Language Teaching Method). Syllabuses are sometimes combined, and this occurs for example between the Situational and the Topical syllabuses (Brown, 2006). Finally, the Lexical syllabus, which represents a drastic shift towards vocabulary, is used in the classroom environment.
Syllabus According to Sinclair and Renouf
According to Sinclair and Renouf in their draft paper A lexical syllabus for language learning, there is great importance in the number of words a student of an L2 knows. It is sometimes used as a great measurement value of progress in the L2. They stated that the approaches taken to vocabulary building have not been methodical in their efforts to establish goals.
Correspondingly, a lesson, that does not use lists for memorization, focused on L2 vocabulary building, would not be able to avoid syntax. It is particularly hard to teach, simultaneously, a syllabus organized for both grammar and lexis. A lexical syllabus, in the beginning, does not inspire vocabulary building. But rather only motivates students to practice the words they already know by bringing them together with other words. The importance of frequency is crucial to L2 teaching, but it cannot only focus on the most common words (Sinclair & Renouf, 1988).
Professor Jack C. Richards
Exercises
Richards and Rodgers also review that the exercises supported by a method serve to differentiate it from other methods. Exercises planned to center on the advancement of certain psycholinguistic processes in language acquisition will vary from those aimed for grammar mastery. This observation shows how procedures are important to define an entire method. The classroom exercises that had grammar as its center are distinct from those that have communication as its center. The blueprint of an educational system is remarkably connected to how students are seen. A method is regarded by what it asks from the students during the learning process.
This is perceived in the level of influence that students may have on others, the conception over grouping. The exercises that are performed, the level of authority over the content, and naturally how the students view the course. Types of exercises in methods include the central categories of learning and teaching that the method supports. Some methods suggest different dispositions in the classroom, an oral drilling method requires a contrasting arrangement of students rather than a method with “problem-solving/information-exchange activities involving pair work” (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 22).
Teacher Performance
The performance of the teacher will fundamentally consider both the objectives of the method and the learning theory that asserts the method. The types of functions that teachers are assumed to perform are what links them to which method they are using. Teachers’ roles in methods can be analyzed on many different levels and these levels vary. They can be examined by the level of control the teacher has over the development of the learning process.
From the teacher’s accountability, to the social structure that involves learners and teachers. Methods fluctuate with regards to the role of the teacher. Some methods posit that the teacher is the root of all knowledge and guidance, while other methods illustrate the teacher’s role as a facilitator, consultant, and force. Some even try to make it impossible for a teacher to commit a mistake, binding the teacher to an educational material which follows lesson plans that can only be performed in a specific way (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 22-24).
Educational Materials
Educational materials is the final issue addressed in the level of Desing. These define content, state or suggest the amount of time and attention that exercises require to be finished. And set daily goals that together represent the aim of a syllabus. Educational materials that are designed on the premise that learning is initiated and observed by the teacher in the classroom can be quite different from those designed for a student’s self-instruction or peer instruction.
Certain methods demand the educational use of available materials, while others mandate different patterns of action in the classroom. Some prevent classroom interaction, and others are neutral about interaction in the classroom. Several materials require remarkably competent teachers with near-native capability in the target language, while others accept teachers who themselves barely finished an advanced English course (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, pp. 24-25).
Procedure
Procedure is the last concept in a method according to Richards and Rodgers. It is the level to which the actions and practices held by a method are applied within the confinements of the classroom. Procedure has three aspects.
The introduction of the new language and how it is supposed to be conducted during language teaching activities such as “drills, dialogues, information-gap activities” is the first aspect (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 26).
The exercises proposed are the second aspect for the study of the L2.
How responses and assessments are dealt with regarding the students’ abilities in the L2 is the third aspect.
In essence, procedure centers on the way a method manages the assessments, the exercises, and the display of the L2 in the classroom. It is the level that considers what teachers all over the world go through every day (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 26).
Professor Theodore S Rodgers
A Handful of Methods
Richards and Rodgers suggested that only a handful of methods are clear regarding all the aspects mentioned before. Methods can appear under any circumstances; a good example is one where a teacher comes up with a new technique (in the level of procedure) that seems to be doing well in the classroom and afterward the teacher translates these findings into an approach that describes or explains the theoretical aspects of these new techniques. Other methods were created the other way around. First, the theory of language or language learning was established, and later the design was created as well as the techniques within procedure (Richards & Rodgers, 1986, p. 29).
Other Issues
I hope you have enjoyed learning about the difference between method and approach. Don’t forget to check the section on Methods and my channel on YouTube.
The first objective of this method is to create on the students the habit of reading
The second is to establish a constant pattern of lecture to the students.
The third is to introduce constructions and the concept of it to students.
The fourth is to show that words can be related to other words in a construction.
The fifth is to establish coherence when the constructions are presented together in a book.
The sixth is to instigate listening, reading, writing, speaking and translating at the same time.
The seventh is to create a sense of achievement or accomplishment before the students, given the fact that they are able to read their first book in a short period of time.
The eighth, and last objective of this method, is to understand that groupings and social interactions in the L2 will only come once the students feel comfortable with their knowledge of the new language and that this varies from student to student.
It is important to state that, this is a collaborative idea between its creator and teachers around the globe. It is free and easy to adapt to any classroom and it is to teach students, from day one, the most frequent words in the English language.
In my thesis I explain it much better What is the Ernesto Method?
Instead of teaching students “Hello, what is your name?” on the students first day of school, teachers should focus on the most common verbs, nouns and adjectives. This way students will achieve English independence much faster, which should be the goal of every English teacher.
So let’s answer the question: What is the Ernesto Method?
First step:
The research began on the premise that students learn second languages by creating memories within each word and as the frequency occurrence of that word increases stronger the memories become.
English methodologies have been around for more than a century and most of the time they focused in form, grammar and error correction. These were the main issues regarding Grammar Translation Method and Audio-lingual Method, issues that Communicative Approach did not agree, suggesting that error correction can do more harm than good. In recent years, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) minimized the importance of form and grammar but keep it necessary if learners want to develop high levels of accuracy in the target language. All these issues are well documented and experimented but the issue of how students start, how is English presented to them, and their first encounter with the language seems not to be an issue.
The corpora used was the British National Corpora (BNC). The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100-million-word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of British English from the later part of the 20th century, both spoken and written. The creation of this methodology is based on three different queries made using the BNC. It accounts for the most frequent verbs, nouns and adjectives found on the restrictions set by the British National Corpora.
The restrictions on the query on the BNC account to 26 different children’s texts which total 517,990 words.
The most frequent verbs were deeming crucial for the understanding of the English language therefore the combination of verbs, nouns and adjectives obtained from the BNC corpora for the formation of construction were all based on a hierarchy that had the verbs on top.
Second step:
The Power Point brings the entire content of the methodology to the classroom.. Many of the issues presented were of linguistics nature, not well known by teachers, but they were presented in a very simple form with screen pictures of how the process was conducted. This first attempt of the methodology used Portuguese as a second language but any adjustments to a different language can be easily applied. The Power Point presentation can be checked on the Power Point lik below:
As an example here is the first question. In it a picture of a of a school girl carrying a backpack and a lunch box appears. The correct answer is the letter A. The sentence reads “The girl was in school”, the words that come closer to be identified by the student would be “girl” and “school”. The average answer by the students to question number one in the pre-test was 66,6% and the post-test was 86.6%.
The entire test and ideas can be read on the following pdf file which contains the entire Thesis.
The idea of the methodology is simple. To present constructions (sentences) with the most stimuli possible fot the students in order for them to create a stronger synapse and therefore a memory of the word and its constructions.
Some examples follow:
The first construction given to students was “She was in school”. The verb “was” is the most frequent verb (6.72%)5 in the list of verbs created and citied before. The personal pronoun “she” is under a picture of a girl holding a lunch box and wearing a backpack (this picture will repeat itself six times, three other instances different pictures were used by the author to create new memories). The noun “school” is also under a picture. The noun in question is the 15th most frequent noun, occurring 0.42% of the time in the list of nouns. The verb was written in a format that could be overwritten by the students. Therefore, reinforcing the experience and creating a memory.
When a second key was pressed in the same slide the verb appears in red, as to instruct students on what to do. This happened to all slides that contained sentences presented to students, creating then a pattern for what to do and what word to focus on.
The verb was presented, isolated and in red with its translation clear to students. It was asked of the teacher or instructor to repeat twice the questions “How do you say was in Portuguese?” and “How do you say estava in English? This processed was also repeated with each single verb presented to students.
The second construction given to students was “She was at the house”. The same verb (“was”) and the same personal pronoun (“She”) was used in this construction. Two words come with pictures in this construction, the personal pronoun and the noun. The noun “house” is the 13th most common noun in the noun list, appearing 0.45% of the time. Once again the verb is written in a form that can be overwritten by students, the sentence is translated word-by-word, when a second a key is press in the same slide the verb appears in red, as to instruct the students on what to do, the next slide shows the verb isolated with its translation clear to students and again the teacher or instructor was asked to repeat twice the questions “How do you say was in Portuguese?” and “How do you say estava in English?”.
The third construction given to students was “He said, no”. The verb “said” is the second most frequent verb (4.20%) in the list created. The personal pronoun “He” is under a picture of a little boy (this picture will repeat itself three times). Once again, the verb is written in a form that can be overwritten by the student, and the sentence is translated word-by-word. Again the teacher was asked to repeat twice the questions “How do you say said in Portuguese?” and “How do you say disse in English?”.
Fifth step:
A semester long methodology is being finished and will be released soon. It will have Portuguese as its second language but it has been built to easily change the second language. I hope you have enjoyed the idea behind my methodology and let me know what you think and if I can be of any assistance.
After reading “What is the Ernesto Method?” , you can check important issues for ESL teachers on the section PDFs. And visit my channel by YouTube.
