Assignment - MA

ASSIGNMENT:
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment has to be done in groups of 3 or 4 students and has to fulfil the
following conditions:

- Length: between 5 and 6 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if
there are any-).
- Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Size: 11.
- Line height: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are
detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the “Subject

Evaluation” document. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not permitted.

In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the “Subject Evaluation” document.

Assignment:

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 Assignment - MA

Look at the classroom activity suggested in the Assignment materials section (at
the same place where you can find this paper), and answer the following
questions:
1. There are various statements in this text which are extremely questionable,
depending on your own personal view of language learning. For example, the text
says, “...the chart....can serve as a basis for lively questions and
discussions....” Why might this be ‘questionable’?
2. Criticise the approach suggested here from the point of view of a ‘strong’
communicative teacher.
3. Say what is good about the approach, from the point of view of a teacher more
focused on form and a step-by-step, linear approach.

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions
will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

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Assignment: Methodological Approaches

Student’s name: Bernar Elizabeth López Brítez

Group: I did not belong to any group

Date: March 27, 2021

Different points of view Using Charts and

Tables in a Communicative and Linear
Approach

Index

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Index ……………………………………………………………………… 4

Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 5

Question 1 ……………………………………………………………………… 6
Question 2
……………………………………………………………………… 7
Question 3
……………………………………………………………………… 8
Conclusion
……………………………………………………………………… 10
References
……………………………………………………………………… 11

Introduction

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Human beings have evolved on every aspect of their lives, education field is one of
them. After many years of giving learners a passive role, now they are responsible for their
learning process. On the other hand, educators have taken a different position, they are in the
classroom to guide and indicate students what to do in order to achieve their goals.
If we compare theories from the past with the current ones, we are going to get huge
gap of differences. We have shifted from memorizing a list of words or expressions to express
our own ideas in a second language. It used to be unimaginable in a classroom because teachers
would focus on results rather than in the student’s process. Lessons were boring and did not
follow students’ needs or interests. Coursebooks had to be finished from the beginning to the
end, otherwise there was not a positive result. Students would have to understand grammar
through memorization or a set of rules without context or meaning. Consequently, there was not
a suitable environment for language acquisition.
Finally, after many years everything have changed in education or at least many
educators are trying to get a more communicative class where learners are encouraged to work
collaboratively with their peers and feel comfortable in their learning process. In addition,
teachers intend to be more flexible and create a safe place for learners.
This assignment is the result of a deep reflection relating practical tasks to theory and
give own perspectives of what communicative approach means in the real world. Likewise, the
linear approach is also analyzed and conclude with proper ideas.

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1. There are various statements in this text which are extremely questionable, depending
on your own personal view of language learning. For example, the text says, “...the
chart....can serve as a basis for lively questions and discussions....” Why might this
be ‘questionable’?

Language theories and methods have an extraordinarily complex development

throughout the years. However, this was not a topic to be discussed until the 17 th century
because “for a long time the study of a second language was focused on only two languages,
Latin and Greek” (Arzamendi, Ball, & Gassó, pág. 18). At the beginning of this process, many
teachers and methodologists believed that students should be treated as machines repeating
everything what the teacher said. Fortunately, after a lot of research linguistics and phycologists
had worked on new approaches to fulfill both students’ and teachers’ needs.
Undoubtedly, it is of great importance to mention that every educator might choose a
different approach, method, and technique in order to work in a class. These decisions will
depend on many factors like the student’s proficiency level in English, background, culture,
interests, age, textbook possessed, etc. Consequently, the teacher might choose an activity
which best fits the lesson to be developed like writing, listening, speaking, or reading. In other
words, almost every activity or material could be adapted and used for specific purposes in
class. Proof of this could be the “personal charts and tables” presented on the assignment where
learners have a clear description of their daily activities without mentioning grammar rules since
it is already established the form. Besides, it encourages students to be more communicative
because the information is focused on what is essential.
According to the Natural Approach by Krashen and Terrell, “in the early stages
charts…, and other realia are used to elicit simple responses from the learner” (Arzamendi, Ball,
& Gassó, pág. 66). Therefore, charts and tables must be meaningful and engaging in order to
acquire the language. Likewise, Nunan (1989) mentions two kinds of tasks, the real-world and
pedagogic task. For instance, if students are completing a chart while listening to an audio,
charts and tables are used as pedagogic task and hence they are not involved in a “lively
activity”. Whereas it is different as a real-world task because learners have to use meaningful
information related to their lives.
Considering the sample activity presented on the assignment, the statement “...the
chart...can serve as a basis for lively questions and discussions...” could be questionable because
the learner is offered to use a set of sentences in order to practice simple present tense even
though the teacher is just providing the context. This chart might be helpful in a class of
beginners where students need to lower the affective filter since Krashen (1986) mentions that

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students need motivation and self-confidence in order to improve their learning process.
However, if the teacher desires to have more open questions, it woul not be possible because
there is not enough information, unless the teacher adds an extra column for “own ideas or
questions”. Only there it could be considered as a basis for lively questions and discussions.

2. Criticise the approach suggested here from the point of view of a ‘strong’
communicative teacher.

The following ideas state the approach from the point of view of a “strong”
communicative teacher. Personal chart and tables usually provide comprehensible imput making
it easier students’ learning process. Nevertheless, it depends on what kind of information is
given for a certain task by the teacher. One more time it should be mentioned what Krashen
(1988) says regarding comprehensible input that belongs to level “i + 1". Considering that not
all of the learners can be at the same level at the same time, Krashen indicates that natural
communicative input is the key. So the chart presented has comprehensible information but it
might not be totally communicative for a strong communicative teacher. Although it might be
meaningful to students, responses are very mechanical and does not allow for freer activities.
As it was mentioned before using Nunan’s concepts, tasks should be from learners’ real
world and not very distance from their interests. Perhaps, we could leave an example on the
chart and leave students to do the rest of it. Of course, the teacher should sample questions and
answers more that one time. Personally, I believe that students lose interest on a certain activity
when it is too easy or when they just have to read it. Students need some degree of challenge as
well in order to maintain their attention and creativity. Even though the group is a beginner
level, students are capable of working by themselves if they are provided of “comprehensible
input” during the three stages of the task: pre, while and post.
As Nunan (2001) also mentions “language is generally seen as a dynamic resource for
creating meaning”. Therefore, a strong communicative teacher should always find a way of
adapting everything to students’ real world. Consequently, every topic developed in class has to
be addressed taking into consideration learners’ needs and obviously their interests. Otherwise,
educators might tempt to fall again into the behaviorism approach, where students are always
leading to do everything equal without considering their differences.
Another point to consider is the context and there should be another chapter regarding
this concept. Whenever a class is planned, educators must be concerned about the topic and its
context. How it is going to help students’ personal developing in the English language world.
Some topics presented in textbooks are not engaging or interesting enough because of students’
background. For example, there is time to describe family members. How could this topic be

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enjoyable for a student who has never met his father? Or even worse, a kid who had lost his
mother in a car accident. That’s why it is usually pointed out how important is to know your
students since the first day of class. Otherwise, we could keep committing the same mistakes
over and over.
Since the creation of the Natural Approach, students have gained an incredibly
significant role in the classroom, many people started to understand that learners are human
beings with emotions and more than that, with a lot of anxiety when it refers to acquiring a new
language. Consequently, strong communicative teachers are more than concerned on lowering
the affective filter which is one of Krashen’s hypotheses. In other words, if a teacher wants to
get positive results from students, he or she might create a really safe place for learners. Only
then students will feel comfortable to share their ideas and express themselves with total
confidence.
Having in mind the above idea, charts and tables work really well to lower affective
filter and provide some scaffolding to students. On the other hand, a strong communicative
teacher might prefer some more open questions created by students using different wh-question
words. It is not a utopic idea to make beginner learners to freely express their ideas if there is
some scaffolding like it was mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph. For sure, if students’
level is more advanced or at least an intermediate level, completing a chart is not enough
because performance is expected to be freer and let students’ autonomy grow up.
In conclusion, I can say that the use of charts and tables in the classroom really help to
promote communication. However, there are several conditions to consider like students’ level,
background, knowledge about the topic, the stages of an activity (pre, while, and post), purposes
of the teacher, learning skills to be developed, and others.

3. Say what is good about the approach, from the point of view of a teacher more
focused on form and a step-by-step, linear approach.

First of all, linear learning is an educational approach which involves pedagogical

strategies where the teacher leads all the activities and students have a more passive role in
opposition to flexible learning. In other words, it is largely teacher-centered. For instance
teachers may read a text and students are guided to complete a chart about it.
Again Nunan (1998) points out something relevant about teaching grammar on his
article titled Teaching Grammar in Context. According to him “from a grammatical perspective,
many foreign language programmes and teaching materials are based on a linear model of
language acquisition. This model operates on the premise that learners acquire one target

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language item at a time, in a sequential, step-by-step fashion”. So taking this idea, charts and
tables are appropriate to focus on form and step by step.
Educators usually focus on grammar in separate lessons because it is considered not
suitable in a communicative activity. Grammar explanation tends to be done on the blackboard
showing a general rule without realizing that it can easily state in cotext and get learners’
understanding using real world tasks. The example presented on this assignment clearly shows
how the teacher uses learners’ own context in order to explain the use of simple present tense.
Besides, it can be considered step by step because it firstly starts with a positive statement and
then students have to use questions in the same tense. Somehow slower and faster learners
might get the context of grammar use. Perhaps, the teacher should add more comprehensible
input through realia or simply ask questions about their everyday routine.
Each teacher has his or her own method to improve students’ learning process. If the
teacher is more incline to a linear approach, charts and tables provide students with a sequence
of information that is simple to follow without grammar explanation or translation. In addition,
in any approach the use of charts allows the teacher to simplify pieces of information. As it was
mentioned before, slower and fast learners would easily see where it came from and add to their
real world.
It is also well known that repetition, mechanical drills, and memorization of grammar
play a big role in language learning. The question is if learners are really acquiring the language
this way. Krashen has mentioned many times that students should acquire the language in an
active and meaningful way considering the five stages of language acquisition.
There are many advantages when using a linear approach. For instance, most of the
textbooks follow the step-by-step linear approach. As every English coursebook it starts with
basic notions of grammar and keeping on to more challenging contents. So, with this linear
approach, a student has to understand a subject before continuing to a new one. Sometimes
when books do not usually bring grammar activities that really enhance learners’
comprehension, teachers add extra materials in order to help them. On this point, charts and
tables are ideal to develop new capacities through simple structure without using too much time.
It depends on the teacher to make more challenging or freer charts.
On the other hand, it is significant to mention when it is the appropriate time to use a
linear approach. Personally, I believe that linear approach occurs on every method because a
teacher will rarely start explaining grammar rules but first present vocabulary preview. Before
vocabulary, the teacher might have some warmup activity to catch students’ attention and kill
boredom. This is the moment to bring enjoyable activities in order to stablish a safe
environment. Otherwise, if students are tensed, they will tend to increase their anxiety and thus
the lesson will not be fruitful. As it was mentioned many times, the topic of the lesson has to be

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always adapted to students’ real world, even though they have different culture from the
characters of the book. It is the teacher’s responsibility to manage these issues. Following the
idea of a linear approach, it means to finish each stage properly without hurrying learners.
Finally, we have to consider that in a step-by-step process, the teacher is concerned
about students’ pedagogic performance, not only on final results or exam grades. It is true that
this approach is more teacher centered but it also interested on students’ autonomy in the
classroom.

Conclusion

In conclusion, since the main frame of this assignment is the Communicative Approach,
I can state that this theory is holistic, and it depends on each point of view of an educator. Some
teachers might follow it strictly, meanwhile others will take only their favorite sections
according to their pedagogic purposes.
Considering my own experiences as a student and a teacher, I can say that this is one of
my favorite approaches because it is utterly focused on what every language learner pursuits: be
able to communicate. Likewise, every teacher is more than proud when his or her student is
starting to produce some conversations alone. Therefore, the Communicative Approach is
complete for a language acquisition since it offers teachers to work on several language skills
(listening, writing, speaking, reading). At the same time, it provides students the chance to
express themselves using meaningful and engaging activities.
On the other hand, charts and tables are a good option to encourage students’
communication in the real world. It depends on the activity the teacher is focused on. However,
its main feature is its adaptability to any level or lesson. As it was mentioned before, it is the
teacher’s responsibility to manage these classroom issues in order to maintain an enjoyable
class.
Finally, I would like to mention that there is not a better classroom approach than the
love, effort, and dedication an educator sets into his or her class. There would not be a wrong
material or book if the teacher is constantly looking for better ideas to improve the class.
Everything can be adaptable and suitable to any class, both sides (educator and learner) with
energy, preparation, and care any student is capable to acquire a second language.

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Bibliography

Arzamendi, J., Ball, P., & Gassó, E. (s.f.). Methodological Approaches. Funiber.
Krashen, S. (1988). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Prentice:
Hall International.
Krashen, S. D. (1986). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford:
Pergamon Press.
Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nunan, D. (April de 1998). Teaching grammar in context. ELT Journal, 52(2), 101-109.
doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/52.2.101
Nunan, D. (2001). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: University
Press.

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