Seminar 4: Instructions

B. Background to language teaching methodology

35. How people learn languages 1
Acquisition and learning
all of us speak and understand at least one language well.
all we had was a lot of EXPOSURE to the language (we heard it all the time, especially
when people talked to us) and opportunities to use it as much and as often as possible.
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION is a subconscious process.
MONOLINGUAL (able to speak only one language).
Age seems to be an important factor in language acquisition.
TEENAGERS and ADULTS don't seem to acquire languages so automatically. However,
they may, in fact, be more efficient learners, in part because their circumstances and
developmental stages are different.
LEARNING = something we do consciously - for example, when we study how to use
the PRESENT PERFECT, think carefully about what order ADJECTIVES go in, or
concentrate on which part of a word we should STRESS.
Why does the difference between acquisition and learning matter?
INPUT HYPOTHESIS= a theory, the linguist Stephen Krashen suggested that people
acquire language if they get COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT = people are exposed to
language that is just above their own LEVEL.
Krashen also suggested that the language that we learn consciously is different from the
language we acquire through comprehensible input.
Many people suggest that exposure to comprehensible input is not, in itself, enough for
people to know and be able to speak a language.
There has to be an element of conscious attention to the actual language that is being used
in the input.
Which way is best?
Go and live in a country where the language is spoken ?? = exposure to the language and
opportunities to use it. Is it enough ??
Most people learn languages in classrooms. They don't have the opportunity to live in a
foreign country, and they don't get the same amount of exposure to the language that
children do when they learn their first language.
Some students seem to acquire a new language without too much effort.
Most language-learning lessons today include a mixture of activities, some more focused
on acquisition and some more focused on learning.
Many teaching methods have focused more on learning than acquisition. Teachers
following these methods have offered their students individual grammar and vocabulary
items one by one.
Some teaching methods have concentrated more on acquisition than learning.
Teachers have involved their students in communication and encouraged them to think
more about the CONTENT of what they say or do than the FORM of the language they
are using .
35. Exercises:
Seminar 4: Instructions

How people learn languages 1

Revise
1 For questions 1–7, decide whether the statements describe acquisition (A), learning (L) or
noticing (N).
1 ‘I’ll never forget all the lists of characters! They gave us a test every Friday. But even
though I am not Chinese I can write pretty well, thanks to that.’ L
2 ‘I was born in Japan – my parents are Japanese – but I went to the USA when I was about
four because my father got a job there. I did all my primary education there. Some people
think I sound like an American!’ A
3 ‘In my school in Turkey the teacher used to stand at the front of the class and explain
grammar rules and we wrote down what he said in our notebooks. My English grammar is
good thanks to him! At least I think it was thanks to him.’ L
4 ‘It was only after the first two lessons that I managed to hear what the teacher was saying –
hear the different sounds and words. That’s when I started to learn!’ N
5 ‘Yeah, well after I left university in the UK I worked on a farm in Cuba for ten months and I
kind of picked up quite a lot of Spanish. Not many of the people there spoke any English.’ A
6 ‘At first when I listened to the radio, it just sounded like noise. But gradually I started being
able to tell different sounds and combinations of sounds – and that’s when I started getting the
language, I think.’ N
7 ‘I fell in love with a really great Polish guy. We’re married now. Yes, my Polish is pretty
good! I just kind of picked it up.’ A
Reflect
3 Think of the language(s) that you studied at school.
1 Did your teacher use methods that focused on learning, or did he/she try and promote
acquisition? 2 What did you do to help yourself get the language? 3 What one thing most
helped you to get the language successfully? 4 What was the thing you liked most about
language learning at school? What was the thing you liked least? If/when you next ‘get’ a new
language, how would you most like to get it?
1. She tried mostly methods that focused on learning rather than acquisition. (grammar,
syntax and so on)
2. Honestly, I did not learn English from school. For me to speak fluently it really helped
watching series and movies all day long during my childhood. I think exposure it is
the most important thing while you learning a foreign language.
3. As I said, watching movies and series and playing different games on the Internet like
Duolingo or Memrise that really helped. I was able to talk with the natives that way.
4. When I started learning English I hated tenses. I could never understand how they are
used in which context and why so many restrictions because in my mother tongue
such things do not exist. If I were to learn a new language I would probably best learn
it with the persons that speak that language. To be exposed every day with their
accents and language.
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36. How people learn languages 2

Four methods
Methods 1 and 2 below are more LEARNING-based, whereas methods 3 and 4 are
significantly more ACQUISITION-like.
1. GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION. Students studied the grammar of sentences in the
TARGET LANGUAGE (the language they wanted to learn). They translated them into
their own language - or the other way round.

Adrian's story
At his English secondary school Adrian learnt French up to lower-intermediate level with grammar
translation. He had to translate sentences such as My uncle's garden is bigger than my aunt's pen into
French and he had to learn the rules of French grammar. When he went to France at the age of 17, he
could say very little for a few days, but then suddenly he started to be able to communicate and he
became more and more fluent over the next three weeks.
became unpopular because students translated written sentences rather than spoken
conversation, and because they didn't do enough speaking.
2.AUDIO-LINGUAL METHODOLOGY (A-L) gave students a lot of speaking practice by
using habit-formation DRILLS. Students repeated sentences again and again until they were
memorised. A-L metl1odology is connected to the theory of BEHAVIOURISM .
• A-L methodology uses a STIMULUS-RESPONSE-REINFORCEMENT approach to
language learning. A stimulus (a teacher's prompt) provokes a student response (a sentence),
and this response is reinforced by the reward of, for example, teacher PRAISE and student
satisfaction.
If you repeat this procedure often enough, some people suggested, the language will be
learnt.
3.THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH/COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING
(CLT) focuses on the idea that people get language if they have opportunities to use it, and
that if students have a desire to communicate and a purpose for communicating (rather than
just practising a grammar item), then language learning will 'take care of itself'.
students do many speaking and writing tasks, trying to use any and all of the language that
they can. CLT focuses more on CONTENT than on FORM;
it concentrates on how successfully students can conznzunicate, rather than on whether they
are speaking or writing correctly. CORRECTION often takes place after the students have
tried to speak or write communicatively
4 .TASK-BASED LEARNING (TEL) is an approach where teachers set their students larger
tasks, such as writing a newspaper article, giving an oral presentation, creating an online
film reviews page or arranging a meeting, rather than conceno.·ating only on the language.
The students may STUDY language, too, of course, but only if this will help them do the
task; it is the planning and the completion of the task that is most important.
A TEL approach would base its SYLLABUS on tasks rather than lists of grammar items.
How people learn; how people teach
Most teachers don't follow any one method, but use elements of many different approaches.
This ECLECTICISM seems to be the best response to different claims about how different
students learn.
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Everything will depend on the balance of exercises and activities -how we get students
ENGAGED, how we get them to study and the opportunities we provide for them to
ACTIVATE their knowledge.
36. Exercises:
1 For questions 1–9, match the descriptions with the terms A–I.
A Audio-lingual methodology B Behaviourism C Comprehensible input D Grammar
translation E Eclecticism F Scaffolding G Task-based learning H The communicative approach
I Target language
1 A method which is sentence-based and where students compare two languages. D
2 Teaching is not organised around grammar and vocabulary, but instead on things that the
teacher asks the students to do. G
3 A teaching approach that relied on behaviourism – and so was based on repetition. A
4 Students are given chances to use the language in the classroom. Their success is judged on
how well they achieve their objectives using the language. H
5 A psychological theory which suggested that learning is based on habit formation (and that
habits are formed through our responses to certain stimuli). B
6 The support that teachers can give to students to help them learn. F
7 The language that the students are studying.I
8 When teachers use techniques etc. from a number of different approaches and methods. E
9 Spoken or written language which students can understand even if it is above their own
language production level. C
Reflect
3 Imagine you are going to learn a new language and you can choose one teacher from a list of
four (see below). Which one would you choose and why?
1 Ms Grammar Translation , because it is important to make connections between your mother
tongue and the language you want to learn.
2 Ms Audio Lingual
3 Mr Communicative Approach
4 Mr Task-based Learning, while practicising you are more likely to end up speaking more
fluently. Repetition is the mother of learning.

37. Students make mistakes

We all make mistakes
Native speakers of a language make mistakes, too, especially in informal conversation.
Why do learners make mistakes?
When people are learning a second language, they make DEVELOPMENTAL ERRORS.
OVER-GENERALISATION because the child is using the new 'rule' too widely. In the
same way, learners of English as a second language often say things like He must to-go,
because they appear to be over-generalising to + INFINITIVE, which they have become
aware of in sentences like He has to go.
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When students are learning a second language, they often make INTERFERENCE errors.
These happen because they are (consciously or unconsciously) trying to use their •
Researchers talk about a language learner's INTERLANGUAGE - that is their own
version of the language they are learning at a certain stage in their language development.
There is a danger that if mistakes are left uncorrected for too long - or if the learner is
unaware of them -they may become FOSSILISED. What kind of mistakes do students
make?
Students make several different kinds of mistakes.
SLIPS. We can think of these as the result of tiredness or because the students are
speaking quickly and are careless.
ERRORS. These suggest that they either don't know something, that they have learnt
something incorrectly, or that their knowledge of the language has been affected by
developmental or interference factors.
ATTEMPTS to say things which are beyond their language knowledge and so they have
a go and make a bit of a mess of it.
We need to be aware of what kind of mistake is being made so that we can CORRECT it
appropriately.
Attempt mistakes are perfect oppornmities for teaching new language because it is
language that the students clearly want.
What do mistakes look like?
Language learners may make pronunciation mistakes, many of which are caused by L1
interference.
Students may use wrong or inappropriate vocabulary; they may select the wrong word in
COLLOCATIONS, saying childish crime instead of juvenile crime, for example.
Do mistakes matter?
When students speak, they may have an accent which is influenced by their first or
second language.
We will need to concentrate on STRESS and INTONATION, especially, since when
mistakes are made with these, they can affect meaning-.
Mistakes matter in writing. This is partly because writing doesn't flash past like
conversation, but stays there for us to look at again and again.
In lessons we often make a difference between language activities which concentrate on
ACCURACY (the students' accurate and correct use oflanguage) and activities which
concentrate on FLUENCY (the students' ability to communicate effectively and
spontaneously).
When we are working on the students' accuracy, we are helping them to study language
(that is, to understand the construction of GRAMMAR, a LEXICAL PHRASE,a
LANGUAGE FUNCTION, etc.).
Because of this, we will probably correct mistakes when they occur and try to help the
students to say or write things correctly.
37. Exercises:
1 For questions 1–6, choose the best option (A, B or C) to complete each statement.
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1 When language learners make mistakes because of their first language, we call these mistakes
… A developmental errors. B overgeneralisation. C interference errors.
2 When language learners take a rule they have learnt and use it with everything – and make
mistakes because of this – we call it … A developmental errors. B overgeneralisation. C
interference errors.
3 When students make mistakes because they are trying to say something they have never tried
to say before, we call these mistakes … A slips. B attempts. C errors.
4 When we correct all the mistakes that students make because we want them to concentrate on
language form, we call this … A slips. B fluency work. C accuracy work.
5 When students make mistakes because they are not thinking carefully enough, we call these
mistakes … A slips. B attempts. C errors.
6 When students make a mistake by putting the wrong word with the wrong word, we call the
mistake … A a word order error. B a collocation error. C a word formation error.

Reflect
3 If you were learning a foreign language, which would be more important for you: to be a fluent
speaker or to be an accurate speaker? And what about writing? How important would that be for
you?
It depends on the reason you are learning that language. If I want to leave , say in England, I
would like to be fluent in order to speak like them and live there. If I was choosing to be a
teacher in my country or get a job that involved say, English I would like to be an accurate
speaker.

38. Learning at different ages

Young learners
Children need a lot of good exposure if they are to acquire a language. One or two hours
a week is usually not enough for successful ACQUISITION, though it may
a) give students a taste of the new language,
b) make them feel very positive about languages other than their own and
c) be a lot of fun. •
Children are usually curious about the world and like learning.
find abstract concepts (such as grammar rules) difficult to understand.
DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE children are happy to talk about themselves, and like
learning experiences which involve and relate to their own lives.
Children are pleased to have the teacher's approval.
Children often find it difficult to concentrate on the same thing for a long time.
The Russian educational psychologist Vygotsky (1896-1934) said that children learn best
when they are in the ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT (ZPD): when they are
ready for the next bit of learning.
Tips for teaching young learners
 Change activities frequently.
 Combine learning and play.
 Use appropriate activities (including songs, puzzles, games, art, physical movement, etc.)
for different kinds of student.
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 Make the classroom an attractive, light and convenient learning environment.

 Pay special attention to your own English pronunciation - children are good imitators.
Adult and older learners
Adults can think in abstract ways and so there is, perhaps, less need for them to engage in
activities such as games and songs in order to understand things.
They sometimes dislike teaching methods that are either different from those they are used to
or which remind them of earlier learning.
Adults usually (but not always) behave well in class - at least better than some other age
groups.
Many adults (but not all) understand what they want and why they are learning. This means
that even when they are a little bored, they can still keep working .
Tips for teaching adults ·
 Find out what interests different student individuals in order to plan the most appropriate
lessons. Be prepared to explain things (such as grammar rules). But remember that many
adults learn by doing things, too.
 Discuss the best ways of learning with your students so that everyone is happy with your
lessons. Provide clear short-term goals so that the students can achieve success at each
stage. . .

Adolescents
Many adolescent students become passionate about the things that interest them.
Many adolescent students have a large amount of energy. This is sometimes a good and
creative thing, but sometimes, if we don't channel it correctly, it can lead to more or less
serious DISCIPLINE problems.
Adolescents usually have not chosen to come to our English lessons. They are there because
they have to be there. They may not see any good reason for learning English.
Many adolescents want and need PEER APPROVAL (the good opinion of their classmates)
far more than they want and need the approval of the teacher .
Tips for teaching teenagers
 Encourage teenagers to have opinions and to think critically and questioningly about
what they are learning. Use the students' own knowledge and experience as much as
possible.
 Treat the students like adults but remember they are still children.
 Encourage the students to have AGENCY (take responsibility for their own learning).
 Be super-organised I Teenagers like to know what they are doing and why.
 Be consistent when there are discipline problems. Criticise the behaviour, not the student.

38. Exercises:
1 For questions 1–12, decide whether the following advice to new teachers would be especially
appropriate for teaching adults (A), teenagers (T) or young learners (YL). There may be more
than one possible answer.
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1 Change activities frequently.

2 Combine learning and play.
3 Discuss the best ways of learning so that students can learn how to learn.
4 Encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning and not leave everything to the
teacher.
5 Encourage students to work on developing their own opinions and to use their powers of
analysis to think critically.
6 Plan clear, short-term goals so that even if students find it difficult to return to learning, they
can have frequent success.
7 Even though they are still often child-like, treat them as if they were grown up.
8 Use puzzles.
9 Use songs.
10 Use student interests and past life experience to help you decide what to teach.
11 When there are discipline problems, always behave in the same way. Students will trust you
more because of it.
12 Don’t try to explain abstract grammar rules.
1 YL 2 YL 3 T (A) 4 T (A) 5 T 6 A 7 T 8 YL (T, A) 9 YL (T, A) 10 A (T)
11 T (YL) 12 YL
Reflect
3 If you could choose which age group to teach (this might mean changing the age group you
actually do teach), which would it be and why? Use the chart to help you come to a decision!
Good points Less attractive things
Teaching young learners -
Teaching teenagers -
Teaching adults -

39. Student-centred teaching

The right priorities

The most important thing in a classroom is not how the teacher teaches, but whether (and
how) the students learn.
Personalisation, agency and learner training
PERSONALISATION is one of the most important stages of any learning cycle. When
students use new language to talk about themselves, or to say things that matter to them (for
example in the PRODUCTION phase of the PPP procedure, they have to think about the
right language to use to express their own ideas and to talk about their own lives and what
interests them
We might discuss with them how and why they want to be CORRECTED.
Many students find it extremely useful to think about how they learn and we can help them
by providing LEARNER TRAINING.
Talking about adults
Adult students bring a lot of previous learning experience to the classroom and they bring
their own ideas about what good learning looks and feels like.
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Some adults are not keen on COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING, for

example, because it is not like the way they were taught at school.
We need to listen (where possible) to our students' own learning preferences. For
example, they may want to TRANSLATE every word of a reading text into their own
language (or have every word explained), but we want them to read for GIST.
Some older learners have (or appear to have) more problems with memory than younger
students. We need to RECYCLE and REVISE what we have done constantly, and we
should back up what they STUDY with visual and other resources.
Although teenagers often learn faster than children or adults, there are other issues we
need to take account of. Teenagers don't always see (or want to see) why we are asking
them to do the things we are suggesting. It is important, therefore, to explain what benefit
they will get from an activity or a lesson.
Teenage students can be incredibly creative - offering ideas, energy and enthusiasm. We
need to direct that creativity, pointing them in the right direction and helping them to
focus on how to make TASKS manageable.
Students at this age are far more likely to enjoy (and be engaged with) lessons if they can
see the relevance of what they are doing to their own lives and interests.
it is worth remembering that teenage students do not necessarily want to share their
world with adult teachers, so we have to be careful about how much we become involved
with their interests.
Teenage students want to know and see that their teacher is interested in their progress
and their wellbeing and that, above all, the teacher is fair and treats all students the same.
39. Exercises:
1 For questions 1–7, match the descriptions with the terms A–H. There is one extra option that
you do not need to use. A Agency B Learner training C Personalisation D Recycling E Self
esteem F Translation G Outcome H Homework
1 It is a good idea if students ‘take charge’ of their own learning – in other words, they make
some decisions about what they are going to learn and how they are going to do it. A
2 Teachers like to know what the possible/probable result of their teaching will be. G
3 Teachers try to make sure that students use the language they have been studying on various
occasions after they have studied it. D
4 Teachers often get students to use the language they are learning to talk about themselves. C
5 Teachers think that students, especially teenage students, need to feel good about themselves. E
6 Teachers often talk to students about what the best ways of learning are so that students can
choose how to study for themselves. B
7 Teachers can use the students’ L1, and have them go from that to English and back again. F

Reflect
3 Think about when you were at school (both primary and secondary). 1 How much control
(agency) did you have over your own learning – either in small ways or in big ways? 2 How
concerned were your teachers with the students’ (you and your classmates) self esteem? How did
you know they were? How did you know they weren’t?
1. When I was at school I had my cousins that ”pushed” me to learn more by myself and so I
did. At school I want it more but we had to keep everything according to the curriculum and
not try anything new. That made me try to learn by myself.
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2. Some of them were but some did not care at all. They just said their theories and what they
had to do after their papers and that was it.
3. I knew they were because they tried to make us feel more comfortable even though we did not
know the answer. They smiled and nodded which was a sign for us for understanding and
compassion. On the other hand, there were others that enjoyed your lack of information and
were cruel and sarcastic saying things like: „”Why should I bother asking you? I know you
don’t know anything anyway.”