Language Teaching Method
A. ECLECTIC APPROACH
Electic approach is a method of language education that combines various approaches and methodologies to
teach language depending on the aims of the lesson and the abilities of the
learners.[1]Instead,
eclecticism adheres to or is constituted from several theories, styles, and
ideas in order to gain a thorough insight about the subject, and draws upon
different theories in different cases.‘Eclecticism’ is common in many fields of
study such as psychology, martial arts, philosophy, religion and drama.
Or The eclectic approach is the
label given to a teacher's use of techniques and activities from a range of
language teaching approaches and methodologies. Eclectic approach for teaching
foreign language is commendable when circumstances do not allow for the
adoption of a single method. Learners of foreign languages nowadays are
prepared to invest less time than before in learning a foreign language.
The eclectic method provides a third option for
teachers because it fuses elements from traditional and cognitive methods to
deliver on the strengths of both. It includes content integration, knowledge
construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy, and empowerment of
competitive aptitudes. To accommodate these changes, teachers need a new way of
thinking. The concept of bilingual knowledge learning has evolved towards a
vision based more on management and creation rather than one based on learning
only.
Teaching a foreign language must be simple for
both teacher and learner and must be within the capabilities of all teachers.
Also, the teacher must feel that pupils are progressing satisfactorily. It must
bring about a balance between the spoken and written word. It must overcome the
conflict between fluency and accuracy. It must increase the rate and amount of
learning which takes place in the classroom. The kind of eclecticism we tried
to implement here is a mixture of traditional reading based approach and some
conversational practice for students.
The eclectic theory of language was advocated
during the year 1990's and because important for the educational theory of language
learning. It is popular because it has the impact of good results without much
pressure on the learner. The advantage of this theory is learners have clear
vision what they are learning. The types of learning activities teachers select
are often directly related to their experiences in the real world. There are
many methods of teaching English out of which Eclectic way of teaching include
positive objectives of known methods and principles of Eclectic method.
Eclectic method is a popular method these days because students are
heterogeneous and versatile level intelligent in the classroom. However, some
teachers are very sensitive of using various methods; they find particular
method as comfortable using in the classroom without taking much trouble.
The advantages lay in general understanding
aspects. Firstly, with this theory, it becomes easier and more possible for the
learners to understand the language of the text with the context of culture.
Secondly, it blends the practice of listening, speaking, reading and writing
into an organic whole.
B. DICHOTOMY PRACTICE
This chapter argues for the recognition of a major dichotomy
in foreign language teaching methodology, an opposition between epistemic and
utilitarian patterns, concepts, beliefs and assumptions. Teaching and learning
are shown to be driven forward either by epistemic goals (pursuit of knowledge,
training of the faculties of the mind, focus on form and the underlying system)
or by utilitarian goals (training for interaction, preparing learners for the
socio-pragmatic pressure of on-line communication).
C. COMMUNICATIVE
LANGUAGE TEACHING
What is meant by CLT is the teaching discussed
with communicative approach as stated by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S.
Rodgers, that: “the communicative approach is language teaching starts from a
theory of language as communication. The goal of language teaching is to
develop what Hymes (1972) referred to as communicative competence”([2]).
This communicative approach begins with the view of language, that language is
a means of communication. The emphasis of a communicative approach here,
according to linguists, aims to: (1) make communicative competence the goal of
teaching in language teaching, (2) develop teaching procedures that emphasize
the interrelations of the four language skills. The four skills are: reading,
structure, writing, and listening.
Procedures
related to CLT:
1)
The
brief dialogue presentation is preceded by motivation around the situation in
the dialogue.
2)
Practice
pronouncing the right utterances, either individually, in groups, in the entire
class of half the class that is usually played by the teacher first.
3)
Conversation
activities followed by free conversation.
4)
Imitate a non-text dialogue outside the class
that can be demonstrated in the form of role-play.
5)
Giving homework written or orally.
6)
Evaluation
by form of expression that is orally demonstrated.([3])
Characteristics
of a CLT :
1)
Overall
goals.
2)
Language
techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic, authentic,
functional use of language for meaningful purposes.
3)
Fluency
and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative
techniques.
4)
Students
in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language, productively and
receptively, in unrehearsed contexts outside the classroom.
5)
Students
are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through an
understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of
appropriate strategies for autonomous learning.
6)
The
role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing
bestower of knowledge.
Some
of the characteristics of CLT make it difficult for a nonnative speaking
teacher who is not very proficient in the second language to teach effectively([4]).
Dialogues, drills, rehearsed exercises, and discussions (in the first language)
of grammatical rules are much simpler for some nonnative speaking teachers to
contend with. This drawback should not deter one, however, from pursuing
communicative goals in the classroom. Technology (such as video, television,
audiotapes, the Internet, the web, and computer software) can aid such
teachers.
1.
Beware
of giving lip service to principles of CLT
but not truly grounding your teaching techniques in such principles.
Ø Audiolingual
Method
1)
Attends
fo structure and form more than meaning.
2)
Demands
more memorization of structure based dialogues.
3)
Language
items are not necessarily contextualized.
4)
Language
learning is learning structures, sounds, or words.
5)
Drilling
is a central technique.
Ø
Communicative
Language Teaching
1)
Meaning
is paramount.
2)
Dialogues,
if used, center around communicative functions and are not normally memorized.
3)
Language
learning is learning to communicate.
4)
Effective
communication is sought.
5)
Drilling
may occur, but peripherally.
2.
Avoid
overdoing certain CLT features: engaging in real-life, authentic language in
the classroom to the total exclusion of any potentially helpful controlled
exercises, grammatical pointers, and other analytical devices; or simulating
the real world but refraining from "interfering" in the ongoing flow
of language.
3. Remember that there are numerous
interpretations of CLT.
Closely
allied to CLT are a number of concepts that have, like CLT, become bandwagon
terms without the endorsement of which teachers cannot be decent human beings
and textbooks cannot sell! To corroborate the latter, just take a look at any
recent ESL textbook catalog and try to find a book that is not
"learner-centered;'" cooperative;"'interactive;"'whole
language based;'" content-centered," or, of course,
"communicative."
D. TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING
One of the most prominent perspectives within the
CLT framework is Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT). While some researchers
(kumaravadivelu. 2006) argue that TBLT is a significantly different approach,
other proponents (Ellis, 20013) would claim that TBLT is at the very heart of
CLT. This approach puts the use of tasks at the core of language teaching.
While there is good deal of variation among experts on how to describe or
define task, Peter Skehan’s (1998, p.95)
concept of task still captures the essentials. He defines task as an activity
in which:
·
Meaning is primary;
·
There is some communication problem to solve;
·
There is some sort of relationship to comparable
real-world activities;
·
Task completion has some priority; and
·
The assessment of the task in terms of outcome
Task-based teaching makes an important distinction
between target tasks, which students must accomplish beyond the classroom, and
pedagogical tasks, which form the nucleus of the classroom activity. A
pedagogical task designed to teach students to give personal information in a
job interview might, for example, involve
1. Doing exercises in
comprehension of wh- question with do-insertion (when do you work at Marcy’s?)
2. Doing drills in the use
of frequency adverbs ( I usually work until five o’clock)
3. Listening to extracts
of job interviews
4. Analyzing the grammar
and discourse of the interviews
5. Modeling an interview:
teacher and one student
6. Role playing a
simulated interview: students in pairs
Task based instruction is a perspective within a CLT
framework that forces you to carefully consider all the techniques that you use
in the classroom in terms of a number of important pedagogical purposes:
Characteristic
of TBLT
·
Task ultimately point learners beyond the forms of
language alone to real-world contexts.
·
Task specifically contribute to communicative goals.
·
Their elements are carefully designed and not simply
haphazardly or idiosyncratically thrown together.
·
Their objectives are well specified so that you can
at some later point accurately determine the success of one task over another.
·
Tasks engage learners, at some level, in genuine
problem-solving activity.
E. LEARNERS-CENTERED INSTREUCTION
This term applies to curricula as well as to
specillc techniques. It can be contrasted with teacher centered, and has
received various recent interpretations.
Learner-centered
instruction includes
·
techniques
that focus on or account for learners' needs, styles, and goals.
·
techniques that give some control to the
student (group work or strategy training, for example).
·
techniques that allow for student creativity and
innovation.
·
techniques that enhance a student's sense of
competence and self-worth.
Because language teaching is a domain that so often
presupposes classrooms where students have very little language proficiency
with which to negotiate with the teacher, some teachers shy away from the
notion of giving learners the "power" associated with a learner-centered
approach.
F.
COOPERATIVE
LEARNING
A
curriculum or classroom that is cooperative and therefore not competitive
usually involves the above learner-centered characteristics. Some of the
challenges of cooperative learning are accounting for varied cultural
expectations, individual learning styles, and personality differences and an
overreliance on the first language.[5]
Cooperative
learning is sometimes thought to be synonymous with collaborative learning. To
be sure, in a cooperative classroom the students and teachers work together to
pursue goals and objectives.but cooperative learning is more structured, more
prescriptive to teachers about classroom techniques, more directive to students
about how to work together in groups than collaborative learning. In
cooperative learning models, a group learning activity is dependent on socially
structured exchange of information between learners.
G. INTERACTIVE LEARNING
At
the heart of current theories of communicative competence is theessentially
interactive nature of communication. An interactive course or technique will
provide for such negotiation. Interactive classes will most likely be found
1)
Doing
a significant amount of pair work and group work
2)
Receiving
authentic language input in real-world contexts
3)
Producing
language for genuine, meaningful communication
4)
Performing
classroom tasks that prepare them for actual language use out there.
5)
Practicing
oral communication through the give and take and spontaneity of actual
conversations
6)
Writing
to and for real audiences, not contrived ones
H. WHOLE
LANGUAGE EDUCATION
Whole language education is a method of teaching
reading and writing that emphasizes learning whole words and phrases by
encountering them in meaningful contexts rather than by phonics exercises[6].
A term that once swept through our profession and is still common use is whole
language education. Initially the term came from reading research and was used
to emphasize:
a. The “wholeness” of
language as opposed to views that fragmental language into its bits and pieces
of phonemes, graphemes, morphemes, and words.
b. The interaction and
interconnections between oral language (listening and speaking) and written
language (reading and writing).
c. The importance, in
literate societies, of the written code as natural and developmental, just as
the oral code is[7].
Now the term has come to encompass a great deal
more. Whole language is a label that has been used to describe:
a. Cooperative learning
b. Participatory learning
c. Student-centered
learning
d. Focus on the community
of learners
e. Focus on the social
nature of language
f. Use of authentic,
natural language
g. Meaning-centered
language
h. Holistic assessment
techniques in testing
i.
Integration of the “four skills”
With all these interpretations, the concept of whole
language has become considerably watered down. Edelsky noted that whole
language is not a recipe, and it’s not an activity that you schedule into your
lesson; “it is an educational way of life. [It helps people to] build
meaningful connections between everyday learning and school learning”[8].
I. CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION
Content-based instruction(CBI), according to
Brinton, Snow, and Wesche, is the integration of content learning with language
teaching aims. More specifically, it refers to the concurrent study of language
and subject matter, with the form and sequence of language presentation
dictated by content material[9].
The focus of a CBI lesson is on the topic or subject matter. During the lesson
students are focused on learning about something. This could be anything that
interests them from a serious science subject to their favourite pop star or
even a topical news story or film.
Several models of CBI have now emerged. Theme-Based instruction may be the
most common offshoot of CBI; in this model language remains the primary aim of
a course, but special attention is given to meaningful relevant themes as a
point of departure for instruction in language. Sheltered content instruction is a form of CBI in which the teacher
of school subject modifies the presentation of material to help second language
learners process the content.
REFERENCES
Douglas H. Brown. Teaching by Principles An
Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, San Francisco : Pearson Longman.
Hymes
(1972) qoute by Jack C. Richardo dan Theodore S Rodgers, Approacties and Methods is Language Teaching, A Descriptial and
Analysis. Cambridge
University Press, New York. Eight Printing.
Jack C. Richard
and Thoedore S Rogers. (1972). Approaches and
Methods in Language Teaching A description and
analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Merriam Webster.
Definition of Whole Language. Accessed
in https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whole%20language on 03 April 2018
Teaching
English. Content-based instruction.
Accessed in https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/content-based-instruction
on 03 April 2018,
19:11 GTM.
Wamboldt, Downe B. Content analysis: Method,
applications, and issues.(1992). Health Care for Women International.
Yanık, Ersen A. Primary school English
teachers‟ perceptions of the English Language curriculum of 6th, 7th and 8th
grades. H. U. (2008)Journal of Education, 35.
[1] Downe-Wamboldt,
B. Content analysis: Method, applications, and issues.(1992). Health Care for
Women International. P.76
[2] Hymes (1972) qoute by Jack C. Richardo dan Theodore
S Rodgers, Approacties and Methods is Language Teaching,
A Descriptial and Analysis (Cambridge University Press, New
York. Eight Printing, 1972), hlm. 69
[4] H. Douglas Brown. Teaching by Principles An
Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, San Francisco : Pearson Longman.
Page 40-50
[5] H. Douglas Brown. Teaching
by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, San Francisco :
Pearson Longman. Page 53
[6] Merriam Webster. Definition of
Whole Language. Accessed in https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whole%20language
on 03 April 2018, 19:02 GTM.
[7] H. Douglas Brown. Teaching by
principles an interactive approach to language pedagogy. (San Fransisco :
Pearson Longman). Page 54
[8] Ibid,. Page 54-55
[9] Ibid,. Page 55
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