LANGUAGE LEARNING THEORIES AND PRACTICES.

APPROACHES AND METHODS1

Associate Professor Titela Vilceanu, PhD

 Preliminary statements
Language acquisition/learning contexts should be shaped by 12 principles:
Automaticity - control of a relatively infinite number of language forms.
Meaningful learning, as opposed to rote learning, grounded in long-term learning
strategies.
The anticipation of reward – tangible or intangible, short- or long-term. Extrinsic
motivation is more likely to create short-term rewards, whereas the intrinsic one
envisages long-term satisfaction.
Intrinsic motivation – not dependent on the present of the teacher or tutor, potentially
more rewarding.
Strategic investment - the learner perceives his or her efforts to be directed to the
attainment of some future goal.
Language ego contributing to the fully-rounding of the learner’s personality.
Self-confidence: – the learning of a foreign language boosts self-esteem and self-
confidence. Besides, it is commonly believed that success engenders success.
Risk taking: successful language learners are tolerant to ambiguity, beyond absolute
certainty.
The language - culture connection: language and culture are inextricably related.
Teaching the cultural load becomes a must as most communication breakdowns are
caused by cultural, not by linguistic misunderstandings.

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Harmer (2007b: 62) equates approach to a model of language competence. According to him, method
represents the approach implementation, subordinating procedure (ordered sequences of techniques) and
technique (activity). Technique is identifiable with the actual classroom activities used in implementing the
method or approach (in full consistency with them). There is a hierarchical relationship between the three,
approach being superordinate to method, and, recursively, method being superordinate to technique.

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The native language effect: the learner’s mother tongue will serve as a reference point to
predict the foreign language system. In this respect, literature speaks of positive transfers
and negative ones (interference).
Interlanguage: the learner passes through several developmental stages until mastering
the foreign language.
Communicative competence as the end goal of language learning, understood as the
ability to apply knowledge in unrehearsed real-life situations (a question of use rather
than usage).
(Brown in Richards and Renandya, 2002: 11ff)

 Popular approaches and methods

1. Humanistic approaches
A humanistic approach to language learning allows for personal growth
orientation and for the development of learners’ responsibility; the learners are
encouraged to use discovery techniques, being no longer spoon-fed by the teacher.
GRAMMAR TRANSLATION is said to have a humanistic grounding (Grenfell and
Harris, 1999), although other scholars claim that it is not based on any approach (notably
Morgan and Neil, 2001). Furthermore, it can be said to emphasize knowledge for
knowledge’s sake. It is heavily indebted to the teaching of classical languages and it
prevailed from the end of the 19th century to the 1940s, in spite of being rejected in parts
of Europe towards the end of the 19th century. Richard and Rogers (1986) list the main
tenets of the Grammar Translation such as follows:

1. The main goal of learning the language is to read the literature of the foreign
language and refine intellectually; secondly, learners are expected to develop a greater
understanding of L1; thirdly, students will be able to cope with difficult learning
materials and situations;
2. Reading and writing are taught to the detriment of listening and speaking;
3. Teaching vocabulary is reduced to the words encountered in the literary texts;
vocabulary items are listed and students are asked to learn their translations;
4. Translation skills, alongside reading and writing, are taught using the literary

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texts;
5. Grammar is taught deductively, the presentation stage, consisting of long
explanations or rules and exception s to the rules, is followed by practice; learners follow
the prescribed route to the technicalities of syntax. The structures to be translated are
presented in a disconnected way, the learners being asked to identify the grammar items
used in the text and state the rule(s);
6. English language teaching is done through English.

THE SILENT WAY (Caleb Gattegno, 1972)

The teacher keeps his/her talking time at a minimum (keeps silent 2), yet, directing
and controlling the learners. The input provided by the teacher is reduced to model
sentences that the teacher utters only once and the learners are asked to repeat.
Information transmission and feedback are given through visual aids. A well known
technique includes Cuisenaire Rods, enabling the learners to deduce meanings or forms: a
set of coloured rods, wall charts and a pointer. The teacher takes a rod and says “a rod” to
the students. Next, by using mime the teacher induces the students to repeat the name of
the object. The teacher combines the names of colours to the object saying “a red rod”, “a
blue rod”, etc. The students are eventually expected to say “a red rod”, “a blue rod”, etc.
without the teacher’s model. With reference to the wall charts, the students are made to
form strings of words using the words they have learnt orally by pointing to a series of
words that then they read in the order indicated.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING/COUNSELING LEARNING (Charles

Curran)
Teaching languages is paralleled to psychotherapeutic counseling, where there is
concern with removing tension and negative feelings. Admittedly, the teacher is the
counsellor/knower and the learner is the client. They gradually build a trusting or
maximum security relationship compared to the growth of the individual from childhood
dependence through adolescent rebellion and self-assertion to adult independence. There

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Gattegno (1983: 72): “… the teacher stops interfering or sidetracking”.

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is a high degree of flexibility in the syllabus design, which virtually develops as the
teaching unfolds.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (Harold Palmer, James Asher)

Physical action and learning are linked in language teaching. Production is
delayed until learners feel confident3 (comprehension skills are developed first).
Imperative forms (commands) are used by the teacher to elicit learners’ action. The
teacher plays a traditional role (controller) and the syllabus is grammar-based.
SUGGESTOPEDIA (Georgi Lozanov)
Learning takes place in a tension free atmosphere, special attention being paid to
furniture and surroundings. Music is played (Baroque instrumental music) to enhance
learning. The typical scenario (“the concert”) runs as follows: students sit comfortably
while the teacher reads a lengthy dialogue. Students are provided with the text and the L1
translation. Slow movement music is played. After the interval (no smoking and no
drinking), the teacher re-reads the dialogue while students listen without reading the text
this time. Thus, learners are supposed to remember best from the teacher playing an
authoritative role.
2. Behaviorism (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, Edward Thorndike, Burrhus Skinner)
The approach is based on stimulus (eliciting behaviour) and Response (triggered
by a stimulus), endorsing habit formation through frequent exposure (reinforcement,
marking the response as appropriate or inappropriate). In linguistics, it emerged in the
1930s: language acquisition (mechanical nature) is another form of human behaviour.
The corresponding method is AUDIOLINGUALISM /THE AURAL- ORAL METHOD
(highly popular in the 1960s), being complemented by the AUDIO-VISUAL METHOD.
In relation to linguistic developments, the Audio-Lingual method is said to be fed by
phonetics.

1. Language learners are exposed to stock phrases presented

in the hierarchical order of difficulty (on tape or read by the teacher). The principle is
called incrementalism;

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Roberts (1998: 35) states that “learners execute teacher’s commands for about 120 hours before
conversation is encouraged”.

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 2. Learners have to assimilate the language items (dialogues) via imitation or
repetition drills (individually and in chorus), with the teacher modeling the learners
(habit formation through repetition);
3. The teacher provides immediate feedback on pronunciation, intonation and
fluency;
4. Primacy is given to the spoken language over the written form, yet spoken
language samples do not draw on colloquial language in authentic situations.
5. The degree of creativity allowed for students is reduced to the changes of certain
key words / phrases.
6. There is separation of the four language skills – reading and writing are developed in
follow-up activities.
7. Grammar is taught inductively after the selection of grammar structures and the
provision of minimal grammatical explanation.
8. Error occurrence is eliminated through further controlled practice.
9. It contains, in embryo, many techniques later developed by the Communicative
Approach.

3. Cognitivism/ Mentalism /Innatism

The Chomskyan revolution discredits the development of linguistic competence
via the stimulus-response-reinforcement cycle as creativity is part of this process:
speakers are able to generate an infinite number of novel sentences (performance, i.e.
actual use of the language) starting from a finite number of rules that they have
internalized (competence, i.e. knowledge about the language system). He advocates the
existence of universal grammar, i.e. of mental blueprints or a mindset specific to human
beings (innate competence as opposed to skill-based behaviorism). Language competence
is somehow idealised, being linked to nativeness and perfect knowledge of the language.
Chomsky’s (1965) ideal speaker-hearer4 is unaffected by limitations of memory,
distractions, shifts of attention, etc. Chomsky’s notion of competence refers to language
as a merely abstract entity. Every speaker is believed to be able to generate language
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… ideal speaker-hearer in a completely homogenous speech community, who knows his language
perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations,
distractions, shifts of attention or interests, or errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge
of the language in actual performance. (Chomsky, 1965: 48).

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through the absorption of examples (Language Acquisition Device – LAD). What
Chomsky does not put into this equation is the socialising function of language, i.e. there
is no reference to socio-cultural embeddedness. Similarly, Bruner (1975) endorses the
existence of the Language Acquisition Support System, transforming the language input
into personalized output.

THE STRUCTURAL-SITUATIONAL APPROACH/ SITUATIONAL

LANGUAGE TEACHING5

1. It is a far-reaching 3-stage lesson template, labelled the P-P-P cycle, consisting of

presentation, practice and production.
2. Grammar is central to language teaching (grammar-based methodology).
3. During the presentation stage, the teacher presents the new grammar items,
based on conversation or a short text. The identification of the grammar structures is
followed by the teacher’s explanation and checking of students’ comprehension.
4. The practice stage involves the use of drills (controlled or mechanical practice).
5. There is smooth progress from semi-controlled/meaningful practice to
free/communicative practice.

The P-P-P cycle was seriously criticized as “fundamentally disabling, not

enabling (Scrivener, 1994: 15). Johnson (1982) had already suggested the deep-end
strategy as an alternative: students are pushed into immediate production (the deep end)
and the teacher decides to return to presentation or practice according to the students’
performance. Similarly, Byrne (1986) sees the approach as going round (in a circle).
Harmer (2007: 65 ff) endorses the ESA sequence: Engage → Study → Activate. During
the Engage stage, learners are engaged emotionally in the process (a sort of captatio
benevolentia). The second stage corresponds to Presentation and Practice, while
Activation overlaps with Production. The model is flexible enough to allow for the re-
ordering of stages: E → A → S (a “boomerang” procedure”), E → A → S → A → E →
S (“patchwork lesson”).

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In the UK.

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The author concludes that the approach is “extremely useful in focus-on-form lessons”
with beginners, and “irrelevant in a skills lesson”.

4. The socio-cultural turn - COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)

The positivist view in social sciences is replaced by an ethnographia mundi
concern in the 1960s. Shift of emphasis from language per se to its instrumentalization
(language as a means of communication in social contexts) and to a more naturalistic
view. From a linguistic perspective, CLT draws on the Speech act Theory (Searle, 1969),
shifting attention to the relationship between language and its users, from habit formation
to the real intended meaning. Das (1985: x) labels CLT as a fundamental paradigm shift,
arguing that it makes new and different assumptions about… what it is learnt and how it
is learnt.
Holliday (1994) claims that there are two versions of the CLT: the weak version /
BANA (developed in Britain, Australia and North America) and the strong version /
TESP (covering the same geographical areas, developed in tertiary, secondary and
primary education). The former attaches special importance to oral work and maximizing
students’ participation, whereas the latter lays emphasis on raising awareness of how
language works in discourse. Generally speaking, it is the first version that is referred to
in literature.
It is Mitchell (1994) who, to our mind, best features the British form of the CLT:

Classroom activities should maximize opportunities for learners to use the target
language for meaningful purposes, with their attention on the messages they are
creating and the tasks they are completing, rather than on the correctness of language
and language structure.
Learners trying their best to use the target language creatively and unpredictably are
bound to make errors; this is a normal part of language learning, and constant correction
is unnecessary, and even counterproductive.
Language analysis and grammar explanation may help some learners, but extensive
experience of target language use helps everyone.
Effective language teaching is responsive to the needs and interests of the individual
learner.

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Effective language learning is an active process, in which the learner takes increasing
responsibility for his or her progress.
The effective teacher aims to facilitate, not control, the language learning process.
(Mitchell, 1994: 38-39)

According to Grenfell and Harris (1999), the popularity of Communicative

Language Teaching (CLT) lies in:

1. the status of the foreign language in the classroom, i.e. the extent to which it is
used in the instruction process.
2. attitude to error: what, when and how to correct? In the traditional model, error
was seen as a heavy impairment, being sanctioned immediately and error correction was
the teacher’s central pedagogic tool. In CLT, there is tolerance to error, which is
understood as a natural stage in the learner’s linguistic development.
3. authenticity of language: a wide range of authentic or real life materials (realia)
is used in the classroom. Besides exposing learners to real life situational language, these
materials also immerse them in the foreign language culture and raise the learners’
motivation for learning the language of the other speech community.
4. spoken and written language are treated as separate entities, requiring different
teaching techniques.
5. practice vs. real language: even if, to some extent, the learners still perceive the
classroom environment as not genuine, there is meaningful interaction in and through the
foreign language, relating back to the intention to mean and legitimacy of tasks.
(Grenfell and Harris, 1999:21)

THE POST-COMMUNICATIVE TURN

Jacobs and Farrell (2003) advocate a paradigm shift, which led to 8 major changes
in ELT:

Learner autonomy: learners are given a higher degree of autonomy with respect to the
learning content and process. Thus, they are encouraged to develop self-assessment skills
and the ability to prioritize their language learning.
The social nature of learning: there is no value-free knowledge, but only knowledge

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serving individual and collective needs or goals.
Curricular integration: English is given a place in a coherent whole, being connected to
other subjects in the curriculum. For instance, project work in English classes requires
knowledge acquisition from other subjects or from the real world (encyclopedic
knowledge).
Focus on meaning: meaningful content is of paramount importance, being the driving
force of learning.
Diversity: the teachers should be aware of the learners’ profile (age, personality, type of
motivation, , learning styles, linguistic proficiency, etc) and try to cater to this diversity of
needs and interests.
Thinking skills: language learning should foster critical and creative thinking skills
(cognitive development). For example, learners should be able to select relevant
information from a text.
Alternative assessment: there is need for complementing traditional forms of assessment
(M/C, Reading comprehension questions, Error correction exercises, etc) by forms that
assess higher-order skills (e.g. portfolios, observation sheets, interviews, etc).
Teachers as co-learners: teachers accrue experience (learning by doing) and capitalize
expertise, while also pursuing professional development.

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ANNEX
Table 1.1 Schools of thought in second language acquisition

Time Frame Schools of Thought Typical Themes

Early 1900s and 1940s and 1950s Structural Linguistics Description

and Behavioral Psychology Observable performance
Scientific method
Empiricism
Surface structure
Conditioning
Reinforcement

19605, 19705, and 19805 Generative Linguistics Generative Linguistics

and Cognitive Psychology Acquisition, innateness
Interlanguage
Systematicity
Universal grammar
Competence
Deep structure

1980s, 1990s, and 2000s Constructivism Interactive discourse

Sociocultural variables
Cooperative learning
Discovery learning
Construction of meaning
Interlanguage variability

(Brown, 1994:15)

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