The following syllabus areas can be used for Paper 2 Task Three:

• Historical approaches and methodologies

• Current approaches and methodologies

• Language acquisition

• Resources

• Learners and contexts

• Teacher roles

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 Paper 2 Task Three

Task Four

Read the following extract on language input in the classroom from ‘A Course in English
Language Teaching’ by Penny Ur, CUP 1996
 

 
 
a. What are the implications of the writer’s view in the extract in terms of:

i) language focus in the classroom?

ii) teacher’s role?

b. What beliefs inform the approach referred to in the third paragraph?

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The following sections are for self-study. The answers are in the appendices.

Identifying key words in the extract

ACTIVITY 8: Identifying key words in the extract (3 minutes)

Now reread the extract and underline key words which are relevant to the task.

See Appendix 6 for suggested answer.

Approaches to language focus

You are asked to explore the ‘implications of the writer’s view in the extract in terms of
language focus in the classroom’.

First of all you need to identify the writer’s view:

ACTIVITY 9: Identifying the writer’s view (3 minutes)

Skim quickly through the extract and decide what the writer’s main message is regarding
language focus.

Then read the comment below

Comment

The writer’s key message is that learners need the teacher’s intervention in order to learn
from language input. This relates to both the language they are exposed to and also
instruction (specifically focus on form) in the classroom.

Remember Task Three is not a reading comprehension question, rather the task and extracts
are intended to act as prompts for you to draw on your own knowledge and understanding of
ELT theories, beliefs and approaches.

You are not required to express your own view but to show your understanding of key
issues, their theoretical underpinning and implications for the classroom.

Remember your answer should not be in essay format. for this task you need to make as
many relevant points as possible and we strongly recommend you lay out your answer as a
series of bullet points to help you achieve this.

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 ACTIVITY 10: Task 4a i): Implications for language focus (10 minutes)

Now do the first part of the task. You may find it useful to make a note of key relevant points
first.

a. What are the implications of the writer’s view in the extract in terms of:

i) language focus in the classroom?

See Appendix 7 for suggested answer

Teacher roles
Before you tackle the next part of the task, you are going to consider a teacher’s roles
regarding language focus.

ACTIVITY 11: Brainstorming teacher roles (10 minutes)

a) Brainstorm the roles teachers take regarding language focus. Consider what they do both
before a lesson and in class.

b) Now check back against the extract and see how your ideas relate to the writer’s
comments.

ACTIVITY 12 Task 4a ii) Implications for teacher’s role (10 minutes)

Use your notes to help you answer the next part of the task;

a. What are the implications of the writer’s view in the extract in terms of:

ii) teacher’s role?

See Appendix 8

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 Issues with language focus
The last part of the task asks you to explore the beliefs underlying the approach referred to
in the third paragraph. The first thing to do is to identify the approach referred to:

ACTIVITY 13:Identifying the approach (3 minutes)

Go back to the third paragraph of the extract and decide what the approach referred to by
the writer is. Use your underlined key words to guide you.

Then see comment below:

Comment

The key words to help you identify the approach are: ‘exposing learners to the language
phenomena without instructional intervention’ i.e. an approach where learners are given
unsimplified language input and there is no explicit focus on form.

ACTIVITY 14: Approaches to language focus (5 minutes)

Look at the following approaches. Which one(s) do you identify with giving learners
unsimplified language input and/or no explicit focus on form?

• Inductive approach

• Deductive approach

• Communicative Approach

• Guided Discovery

• Task Based Learning

• Natural Approach (Krashen)

• Audiolingualism

• Silent Way

See Appendix 9

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 For Task Three you are not expected to simply ‘name drop’ different approaches or theories.
However, familiarity with these labels can serve as useful memory prompts to access
underlying principles you can relate to the extracts you are given. It is also useful to refer to
your knowledge of First and Second Language Acquisition research as this will inform your
answer to some extent.

ACTIVITY 15 Task 4b) Beliefs informing the approach (10 minutes)

Use your notes to help you answer the last part of the task:

b. What beliefs inform the approach referred to in the third paragraph?

See Appendix 10

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 Appendices

Appendix 6: Identifying key words in the extract

Suggested answer (your ideas may vary slightly):

As you can see, large parts of the text are underlined. This is part of an initial processing
for you. As you move on to tackle the individual questions, you will need to separate out
the parts which are relevant to each question.

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Appendix 7: Task 4ai): Implications for language focus

NB You are not expected to make all these points – you would exceed the maximum number
of marks. All the suggested answers for Paper 2 Task Three list relevant points you could
make so that you can check against them. You may well have thought of others but this will
give you a good indication of whether you are on the right lines.

• Needs to be an explicit focus on form for learners’ language to develop in classroom

(c.f. just in L2 environment where there is a risk of fossilisation)

• Learners first need to ‘notice’ language features in order for input to become intake
and explicit focus on form can help this process (cognitive learning theory)

• With form-focused instruction learners benefit both in terms of efficiency and in the
level of proficiency they attain

• Exposure to language input only provides learners with positive evidence (i.e. what is
grammatically correct) and does not give them negative evidence (i.e. information on
what is not grammatical) – for this they need instruction and focus on form

• Authentic language is too messy and complex to expose learners to for teaching
purposes

• Texts should be modified to make them accessible to learners, otherwise not useful

• Language needs to be tidied up and simplified as a practical response to learners’

reality – time and exposure are both limited

• Suggests a weak form of communicative approach: learners learn language in order

to use it

• Supports a PPP approach to teaching language and that learning can follow a
syllabus of pre-selected language items

• Also supports version of TBL where there is a pre-task focus on form

• Suggests a synthetic rather than analytic approach to language focus in the

classroom i.e. parts to whole and this matches most learners’ expectations and
previous experience

• Need to isolate and categorise features of language in order to teach them and help
learners learn i.e. language should be taught in discrete items

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 • Each discrete item can be isolated from the language that surrounds it. Learning a
language can appear to be an insurmountable challenge – by tidying it up and
organising it into categories (discrete items), the task can appear more manageable.

• Teaching should be based on a syllabus of graded structures, e.g. organised in terms

of their formal complexity – this offers security to learners and teachers

• Texts learners are exposed to are selected primarily to provide input of specific
linguistic features rather than content

• Declarative knowledge (i.e. knowledge about language) is useful

• Learners need to be able to understand metalanguage

• Learners need pedagogical rules to guide them

• Shows grammar is a list of learnable rules – encouraging for initial learner, who can
see there is a system behind initially apparently random language features

• It is worth not giving learners full picture e.g. comprehensive, detailed linguistic
description may need to be compromised for sake of clarity

• It is too daunting and demotivating to give learners complex rules and unadulterated
language initially

• If ignore learners’ expectations by encouraging them simply to experience language,

they are likely to become frustrated and discouraged

• It is important that language focused on in the classroom is immediately meaningful

to learners

• Learners need to be encouraged to produce language quickly in classroom (c.f. silent

period of Natural Approach)

Appendix 8: Task 4aii): Implications for teacher’s role

• Gate keeper for language learners are exposed to

• Simplifies and tidies up language for learners

• Limits and modifies target language to ensure intelligible for learners

• Selects texts for language purposes, modifying them as necessary

• Selects language to focus on, taking into account e.g. frequency, complexity,
usefulness (rather than random features which come up in unmediated text)

• Directs learners to formal features of language input

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 • Gives rules of thumb / generalisations to help learners learn initially (c.f. descriptive
linguistics)

• Helps learners with meaning of new language e.g. use of visual aids, mime,
contextualised in a (simple) text or situation, with enough examples to enable
learners to perceive a pattern

• Checks understanding of new language items

• Uses consciousness-raising techniques to help learners notice language, e.g.

highlighting language features in some way (e.g. repeating language items, writing
on board or drilling them, asking learners to infer rules from examples, asking them
to compare their output with that of more proficient users of the target language –
noticing the gap); ensuring feature occurs many times in one text (input flood)

• Talks about language, explaining or eliciting rules

• Identifies lexis and grammar rules of the target language for learners to learn

• Acts as an agent in learning process who causes learning to happen rather than a
facilitator who only provides appropriate conditions

• Acts as a source of input through teacher talk which is modified/graded to ensure

learners understand

• A pre-requisite for learning is attention. The teacher needs to try to exclude any
distracting or irrelevant details.

Appendix 9: Approaches to language focus

The following approaches are related to unsimplified language input and / or no explicit focus
on form:

• Inductive (pure form only)

• Communicative Approach (strong form only e.g. deep end approach)

• Task Based Learning (strong form only e.g. Prabhu and Bangalore project)

• Natural Approach (Krashen)

Appendix 10:Task 4b) Beliefs informing the approach

• No explicit focus on form

• Learners want to learn to use language (procedural knowledge) not learn about
language (declarative knowledge)

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 • Krashen’s input hypothesis: exposure to spoken and written language, provided it is
comprehensible (i+1), is all that is needed for language acquisition to take place; no
overt teaching e.g. of grammar is needed*

• Krashen: Learners can only acquire L2 naturally; classroom learning with explicit
focus on form only serves to help monitor output and make corrections

• Relates to ‘pure’ form of TBL and Prabhu / Bangalore project, where the syllabus
consisted of a series of tasks, no focus on form (since then most proponents of TBL
have advocated some focus on form)

• Also relates to CLIL (content and language integrated learning), which has no
predetermined language syllabus and instruction is organised solely around the
content, with the idea that learners acquire the language incidentally whilst focusing
on the subject

• Order of acquisition: a syllabus which involves presenting a series of preselected

language items is not effective. Learners do not seem to learn what is taught in the
order it is taught but what they need and are developmentally ready for

• Therefore need to expose learners to a wide variety of lexis and grammar as cannot
predict what they will take away form each lesson – too risky to focus on one discrete
item

• Krashen’s natural order hypothesis: given order of acquisition theory, where rules of
a language are learned in a predictable order, regardless of when taught, it is not
worth spending time explicitly focusing on form as it won’t make any difference

• FLA and SLA are essentially the same process

• Language is not learned by gradual accumulation of one item after another

• Language input most effective when made comprehensible through negotiation of

meaning e.g. asking questions to sort out misunderstanding or gap in knowledge
(rather than modifying language initially)

• It is important to focus on authentic texts so learners see how language is naturally

used – they are learning in order to communicate in the real world and so not useful
to give modified input / texts

• It is better therefore to grade the task, to make the text accessible, rather than the
text

• Suggests a strong form of communicative approach: learn language by using it

• Suggests a purely inductive approach, no focus on form and no explicit teaching

*NB the need for comprehensible input fits in with the writer’s own view. However, they
disagree on the need for focus on form.
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