ITTT Diploma in TESOL Course

Dip002

Module 2
A brief history of ELT

International TEFL and TESOL Training

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Where the world is your classroom

Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

Overview
This module focuses on the past, present and potential
future of EFL teaching methodology. Through a study of
the past we can gain a better understanding of the
current situation and by studying this, we may be able to
suggest the possible direction that methodology will take
in the future.

A distinction will be made between 'methods' and

'approaches' and you will need to research a number of
the past and current methods/approaches employed in
the teaching of English as a foreign language. It is
important to appreciate that whilst each of the different
teaching approaches will be described individually for the
purpose of clarity, that it is unlikely that one method
would be applied to a whole range of teaching situations
or even at different levels within the same organization.

You should also be aware that there will always be 'vested

interests' in the descriptions of the various approaches
that you will find, this is natural when you consider,
academic interests and research grants, publishers and
so forth, so it is a good idea to keep an open mind when
reading about possible 'panaceas' to language teaching,
as you are no doubt aware, such an animal does not exist.

That being said, let's have a look at some of the methods

and approaches attempted and adopted thus far. You
may well have had personal experience as both a student
and or teacher in some of these approaches.

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Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

Background
Theory and practice
Let us start by making a distinction between theory and
practice.

There have over the centuries been many theories of

learning, these increased in number with the advent of
Psychology as a discipline. In terms of educational
theories and the research behind them (which is often
flimsy at best) we would describe such as an 'approach'.

When we translate an approach into a practical style of

teaching often referred to as pedagogy, we call this a
'method'. Before describing the methodologies it is
therefore necessary to look firstly at the approaches that
have been developed, as these underpin the methods.

Examples of approaches would be:

n Behaviorism
n Social cognition
n Constructivism
n Cognitive development

(to name but a few)

Behaviorism

This is a theory of learning centered around conditioning.

According to this model of learning there are two types of
conditioning in operation, for all animals including
humans. These are:

n Classic conditioning, which is a reflex action response

to a stimulus. This is supposedly a natural
phenomenon.

n Operant conditioning, which is essentially a feedback

system of positive (or negative) reinforcement leading
to learning pathways being created by experience.

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Where the world is your classroom Dip 002 Copyright © 2012 International TEFL and TESOL Training. All rights reserved.
Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

Social cognition

Social cognition is a learning theory based around the

idea of embedded culture. Again there are two major
contributions that culture is thought to make:

n Our culture provides us with the material knowledge

that we acquire; it tells us what to think.

n Our culture also tells us how to think.

Constructivism

This is a learning theory that suggests that we all

construct our own reality for the world in which we live.
Each new experience that our lives bring will slightly (or
perhaps drastically) change our model of reality, so each
change in our model of the world is said to be the learning
process.

Cognitive development

Perhaps the best known theorist and experimenter in this

area is Jean Piaget.

His four-stage developmental theory, in which the child

gradually increases the complexity of cognitive ability
from the Sensorimotor stage to the Formal operations
stage.

There are obviously many more approaches that have

been suggested.

Can you name three?

1. ____________________________________________

2. ____________________________________________

3. ____________________________________________

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Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

Research study sheet

1. Each theory, part of them, or a combination, has underpinned many of the methodologies that have been
used over the years.

Here are some examples. For each write a detailed description of the main pedagogical processes involved in
the method/approach.

a. The Classical Method

b. Audio Lingualism

c. Community Language Learning

d. The Direct Method

e. Task Based Learning

f. The Silent Way

g. Suggestopaedia

h. Total Physical Response

i. The Lexical Approach

j. PPP

k. ESA

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Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

2. Choose any two of the methodologies described above and explain how they would be suitable or otherwise
for a group of Japanese middle managers, in a car manufacturing plant.

3. Choose one of the three additional approaches you gave earlier in the unit and outline the theory behind it.

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and TESOL Training
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Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

Task sheet

1. Outline Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligence.

2. A great deal of research has recently taken place in the USA and Great Britain regarding 'Language Corpora'
which has led to a resurgent interest in the Lexical Approach. Outline three recent developments in the use of
corpora for language teaching.

3. Outline Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Which of the methodologies you have studied best fit the
Piaget model? Explain your answer.

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and TESOL Training
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Mod o ule 2
A brief history of ELT

4. For each of the theorists below, classify their work in terms of Behaviorist, Constructivist and so forth, and
explain why you have placed them in this 'camp'.

a. Bandura

b. Montessori

c. Skinner

d. Dewey

e. Bruner

f. Watson

g. Papert

h. Piaget

5. Which approach do you feel is most suitable to ESL teaching and why?

You should now be ready to access the test.

Make sure you have copied and saved a file of your guided study and research answers, so that you can refer to
them during the test.

Good luck.

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and TESOL Training
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Where the world is your classroom Dip 002 Copyright © 2012 International TEFL and TESOL Training. All rights reserved.