PREFACE

The Basics of English Language Teaching is designed to be a useful guide for students on a
teacher training course who need some theoretical background before they start their practical
work in the classroom.

Writing a book about language teaching methodology is an extremely demanding task for two
reasons. First, there are so many excellent books already written by highly acclaimed linguists
and methodologists that one cannot help wondering – is there anything new I can say? Second,
language teaching methodology is constantly changing and as soon as the book is published,
there are likely to be some new aspects that are not covered.

Learning how to teach a foreign language is a long process that requires much more than
reading just one book. On the other hand, students on a teacher training course have to start
from 'something'. This book, therefore, provides the most essential theoretical and practical
aspects of foreign language teaching that were selected to fit the syllabus of the compulsory ELT
course for the third year students of English at the Facuty of Law and Business Studies. It
contains twelve chapters that cover the history and development of English language teaching,
the practical techniques used in teaching languge skills, grammar and vocabulary, planning and
organising classes, testing, correcting students' errors and the role of the teacher. Since the
presentation of the material selected is simplified to meet the requirements of the introductory
basic course, additional reading is suggested at the end of each chapter to satisfy the curiosity
and needs of aspiring teachers.

1
1 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Before discussing some aspects of foreign language acquisition, it is important to

clarify a few terms, often used in literature, such as foreign language acquisition vs.
second language acquisition and language acquisition vs. language learning.
The terms second language acquisition (SLA) and foreign language acquisition
(FLA) are often used synonymously. Originally, the term FLA was more common, but
lately SLA has been increasingly used to refer to all types of non-native language
learning and it denotes the study of how learners learn an additional language after they
have acquired their mother tongue. Sometimes, however, there is a conceptual
difference, established mainly for political reasons, in the meaning of these two terms
(Stern 1991: 16).
Second language acquisition is, more precisely, used when referring to non-
native language learning when the language is going to be used within a country where
it has an official status. Immigrants to the USA or people who live in the countries where
English is an official language, thus, learn English as a second language.
Foreign language acquisition, on the other hand, means learning a non-native
language that is going to be used outside the country. Although the distinction between
the two is not made on the basis of linguistic theories, it may be relevant to language
teaching. Firstly, purposes for learning a second language and a foreign language are
quite different. A second language is often learnt because it is needed for education or
2
for full participation in a community, while a foreign language can be learnt for reading,
communication with foreigners, etc. Secondly, people learning a second language are
surrounded by the language all the time and can easily ‘pick it up’ even without formal
instruction, while learning a foreign language requires more formal instruction, due to
the fact that there is little exposure to the foreign language in the learner's native
environment.
Considering the distinction in the meaning of SLA and FLA, it is reasonable to
assume that learning English in Serbia can rightly be referred to as foreign language
learning.
Another distinction that is frequently made in literature is the one between
language learning and language acquisition. It was first established by Stephen
Krashen, later often disputed, but always discussed in literature. According to Krashen
(1981), language acquisition is a subconscious process of picking up the language
through exposure to ’adequate input’, similar to the acquisition of the mother tongue,
while language learning is a conscious process in which there must be some formal
instruction and focus on form. Krashen believes that language acquisition is a natural
process that gives long lasting effects, while language learning, according to him, fails to
result in creative language use and fluency, enabling learners simply to ’monitor’ their
acquired knowledge. Some linguists disagree that language acquisition and language
learning are two different processes as Krashen defined them, some respect the
terminological distinction he made, but there are a number of linguists who see it as
irrelevant and use both terms interchangeably. Admittedly, it is rather difficult to define
to what extent subconscious or conscious processes are involved, and which are
dominant in a particular case. A school environment is supposed to be oriented to
conscious learning. On the other hand, the term acquisition has been increasingly used
among linguists to refer to all types of language acquisition regardless of the processes
involved and it seems logical to use this widely accepted term here to cover both
meanings.

3
 Further reading:
Krashen, S.D., (1981): Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning

4
2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING

For decades, both linguists and teachers of foreign languages have been trying to
design a teaching method that would result in the fastest and the easiest foreign
language acquisition.
During the 20th century, significant progress was made in foreign language
teaching, as well as in applied linguistics in general, and in all other related disciplines.
The rapid development of language teaching theory resulted in its practical application
through a number of teaching methods that are still in use today.
The choice of a teaching method usually depends on the age of the students, the
teaching environment, the curriculum and current trends, but one of the most
important factors to be considered in contemporary teaching is the purpose of language
learning.
A modern way of life with a great deal of business communication and the
necessity for foreign language competence in getting high-quality education have led to
a new trend in applied linguistics – teaching or learning a foreign language for specific
purposes, which is much more practically-oriented than classical foreign language
teaching. Until recently, however, the choice of a teaching method was mostly made in
line with the current trends in psychology and linguistics.

5
2.1 Trends in psychology

Learning in general, as well as learning a foreign language, is an exclusively

human capacity and the interaction between applied linguistics and psychology is
therefore absolutely inevitable.
Since the beginning of the 20th century when Sigmund Freud and, later, Karl
Gustav Jung recognised the close relationship between the human mind and language,
psychologists have been increasingly interested in language use and language
acquisition, but it was not until the 1950s and the arrival of behaviourism that
psychological theories seriously influenced the approach to language teaching and the
design of teaching methods. Some of the schools and theories that played an important
role in the development of FLT are listed in the following section.
Skinner was one of the most prominent figures of behaviourism and his theories
of reinforcement, operant conditioning and shaping (Skinner 1957) were widely
accepted in language teaching in the 1950s. For Skinner, it is the history of
reinforcements that determines behaviour because we learn to choose or avoid
behaviours based on their consequences. The behaviourist’s basic mechanism of
learning is
stimulus => response => reinforcement.
This means that a stimulus calls for a response which is then reinforced in a positive or
negative manner. Operant conditioning is thus seen as the changing of behaviour by use
of reinforcement which is given after the response. The reinforcement can be in the
form of rewards or punishments and when such a response to certain behaviour is
controlled, the behaviour can be shaped.
The theory of operant conditioning and shaping contributed to the development
of some language teaching methods in which students’ ’verbal behaviour’ was to be

6
controlled in the same way and it was believed that the desired verbal behaviour could
gradually become ’automatised’ due to long and adequate conditioning.
Skinner’s theses and concepts as well as the whole behaviourist position in
psycholinguistics were later fiercely attacked by Chomsky (1959) who claimed that the
concepts of shaping and reinforcement transferred from experimental conditioning of
animals were completely misleading in language use. Since the development of
cognitive psychology began in the 1960s, the behaviourists’ explanations have generally
been considered too mechanistic and oversimplified although there are some aspects of
this theory that are thought to be worth reconsidering.
In the 1960s, the theories of cognitive psychology and their criticism of the
simplified concepts offered in behaviourism were generally accepted and integrated
into contemporary trends in foreign language teaching.
The cognitivists claim that human learning is not the result of pure conditioning,
but of deeper and more complex processes whose regularities of functioning and
organisation are to be discovered. The use of language and language learning are
viewed as strongly linked to thinking and, thus considered creative.
The early representative of the cognitive approach to learning was Gestalt
psychology1 which threw light on the subjective cognitive experiences of the learner
with such concepts as ‘integration and differentiation’, ‘whole and part’, ‘structure’ and
‘organisation’. Gestalt Learning Theory proposed several laws of organisation, which
are, in their view, innate ways that human beings organise perceptions. According to
this theory, perception tends to complete incomplete objects and like parts tend to be
grouped together in cognition. Being a holistic approach, Gestalt contends that learning
consists of the grasping of a structural whole and not just a mechanistic response to a
stimulus. Numerous new concepts and approaches emerged from this different
philosophical perspective.
The further development of the cognitive approach resulted in an even better
understanding of human learning. An important and influential school of cognitive
1
Three main Gestalt theorists were Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka.
7
psychology was the one that developed the theory of meaningful learning (Ausbel
1967) which contends that learning takes place through a meaningful process of relating
new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts. Meaning is not an implicit
response, but a ’clearly articulated and precisely differentiated conscious experience
that emerges when potentially meaningful signs, symbols, concepts or propositions are
related to and incorporated within a given individual’s cognitive structure...’ (Anderson
and Ausbel 1965: 8). This theory of learning can probably be best understood by
contrasting rote and meaningful learning. Rote learning is the process of acquiring
material as discrete and isolated entities that have little or no association with existing
cognitive structures. When we learn phone numbers, we learn them by rote without
reference to cognitive hierarchical organisation. Meaningful learning, on the other hand,
is the process of relating and anchoring new material to already established relevant
entities in cognitive structures. Meaningfully learnt items are much more likely to be
retained over a long period of time.
The school of cognitive psychology contributed significantly to the development
of teaching methods in the 1960s, which emphasised the importance of understanding
meaning and conscious learning.
The last decades of the 20th century were marked by the rapid development of
psycholinguistics and an increased interest in the process of first language acquisition
which, in spite of great differences, has a lot in common with the process of foreign
language acquisition. This led to new theories of foreign language acquisition based on
empirical studies conducted in the field of first language acquisition and, therefore, to
new teaching methods.
Psychology played an important role in foreign language teaching not just by
providing theories of learning, but by explaining the role of personality factors in
successful foreign language acquisition as well. The importance of these factors has
been increasingly recognised in designing modern teaching methods and the adequate
learning environment and will be dealt with in more detail later in chapter 4.

8
2.2 Trends in linguistics

Apart from being closely related to psychology, foreign language teaching is even
more closely related to linguistics and trends developing in this field strongly influenced
the design of certain teaching methods and the choice of adequate teaching materials.
The following pages contain an overview of the most important linguistic schools.
American Structuralism appeared in the 1930s and exercised a marked influence
on language teaching theory. This school of thought was based on Bloomfield’s ideas
(Bloomfield 1933) and insisted on a balanced presentation of language which would give
equal weight to three different levels of analysis: phonology, morphology and syntax. In
the next two decades, a number of linguistic studies offered detailed and objective
presentations of some aspects of language. The structuralists argued that foreign
language teaching should be made more effective by the introduction of structural
analysis into carefully selected teaching materials. Language should be presented by
linguists, they claimed, and drilled thoroughly. Spoken language should be given more
attention and getting students to speak should be the priority of teaching. The
structuralists also believed that the teaching process should concentrate on practical
exercises more than on theoretical aspects of language. This school of thought strongly
influenced both the design of teaching materials and teacher training programmes in
the 1940s and 1950s.
A new linguistic school of thought represented by Michael Halliday developed
the ‘scale-and-category’ theory (Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens 1964) and offered it as
a basis for language teaching in the 1960s. A linguistic description, according to Halliday,
should involve phonological, lexical, grammatical and semantic aspects of language, but
they should be analysed separately. The central idea in Halliday’s theory is that the
description of any language requires four basic categories: unit, structure, class and
system and that the concepts represented by these categories should be arranged in
rank order from lowest to highest (a ‘rank scale’). Despite the fact that this theory

9
offered a new model of comprehensive language description and that some of its
aspects have been widely accepted in linguistics ever since, its influence on language
teaching was rather weak because it provided no clear idea of how to relate this theory
to teaching methods and how to design adequate teaching materials.
The development of contrastive analysis in the 1950s was much more significant
for language teaching. Lado (1957), was especially concerned with areas of difficulty in
language learning. A comparative study of the native and the foreign language, he
believed, would be useful in identifying likenesses and differences between languages
and would thus enable linguists to predict areas of difficulty for the second language
learner. The comparative studies of different languages which would give the most vital
linguistic information were supported by the American Center of Applied Linguistics in
the 1960s. Despite the fact that contrastive analysis was not meant to be a new teaching
method, but a new form of language description across two languages, it contributed a
lot to curriculum development, the preparation of teaching materials, the diagnosis of
learning problems, and to testing. Its further development increased the role of
linguistics in language teaching.
Transformational generative grammar and its central figure Noam Chomsky,
brought about radical changes in linguistics and offered a new theory of language
around 1965. Syntax was the part of linguistics that had been least investigated and
demanded a new perspective, which was offered by transformational generative
grammar and its concept of a deep syntactic structure. The central idea in this school of
thought is that apart from the surface structure, there is an underlying (deep) structure
of the language and that all languages have similar deep structures (Chomsky 1965). The
surface structure is seen as resulting from transformations of underlying strings.
Generative grammar aims to define the rules (transformations) that determine syntactic
relationships and generate an indefinite number of grammatically correct sentences.
The idea of these two levels interacting through the process of transformation became
an important feature of linguistic analysis and resulted in a new interest in syntax.
Transformational generative grammar was not taken as a basis for the design of a new
10
teaching method, but it radically changed the perspective of language learning. Owing
to the new approach, a number of teaching techniques popular in the era of
structuralism and behavioral psychology such as memorisation and mechanical drilling
were considered useless in developing communicative competence and thus
increasingly abandoned.
The further development of linguistics in the last decades of the 20th century
was marked by attempts at linking language theory to educational practice, which
resulted in a shift of interest towards discourse analysis, semantics, pragmatics and
sociolinguistics. Linguists of the time became aware that the practical demands of the
communicative approach to language teaching ran ahead of the existing theory and
research, and that the pure linguistic analysis was gradually becoming more interrelated
with semantics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. This has since led to the design of
new teaching methods which promote the psychological and pragmatic aspects of
communication.

Further reading:
Ausbel, D. A. (1968): Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View
Bloomfield, L, (1933): Language
Chomsky, N., (1957): Syntactic Structures
Chomsky, N., (1959): „Review of Verbal Behaviour by B.F. Skinner“
Lado, R., (1957): Linguistics Across Cultures: Applied Linguistics for Language Teachers
Skinner, B.F., (1957): Verbal Behaviour

11
3 APPROACHES AND METHODS

A few technical terms that are frequently used in language teaching theory
should be clarified before a brief overview of the most important approaches and
teaching methods is given.
Students who come across the terms ‘approach’, ‘method’ and ‘technique’ for
the first time might find them confusing without this useful set of definitions, provided
by the American linguist Anthony (1963). An approach to language teaching is
something that reflects a certain model or research paradigm – a theory. This term is
the broadest of the three. A method, on the other hand, is a set of procedures, in other
words - a system that spells out rather precisely how to teach a language. Methods are
more specific than approaches but less specific than techniques. Methods are typically
compatible with one or sometimes two approaches. A technique is a classroom device
or activity and thus represents the narrowest term of the three concepts. Some
techniques are widely used and found in many methods (e.g., imitation and repetition);
some other techniques, however, are specific to a characteristic of a given method.

3.1 Approaches to foreign language teaching

According to Celce-Murcia (1991), there are nine important approaches to

foreign language teaching that marked the 20th century.

12
 The Grammar-Translation Approach was based on the concepts used in
teaching classical languages and was mainly focused on teaching grammar and
practising it through translation exercises. The main goal of teaching was to make
students able to read in a foreign language. There was little speaking or use of the target
language in the classroom, so the students were usually unable to use the foreign
language fluently later in real communication.
The Direct Approach, a reaction to the Grammar Translation Approach and its
weaknesses, stressed the ability to use rather than to analyse a foreign language as the
goal of language teaching. The use of the mother tongue was not allowed in the
classroom and the importance of good pronunciation and communication skills was
emphasised.
The Reading Approach was influential in America in the 1930s, when reading
was considered to be the most useful skill in foreign language learning since not many
people travelled abroad and few teachers were fluent enough to be able to use
methods derived from the Direct Approach. Reading comprehension was the most
emphasised skill and grammar and vocabulary were selected to fit the demands of the
reading syllabus.
The Audio-Lingual Approach, dominant in the 1940s and 1950s, was based on
the theoretical principles of structural linguistics and behavioural psychology and thus
insisted on error-free language learning, seeing it as a process of good habit formation.
All four language skills were considered important and were developed. Language was
often manipulated regardless of the meaning or context.
The Situational Approach was dominant in Britain in the 1940s and 1950s and it
emphasised spoken language. Only the target language was used in the classroom and
the language material was first practised orally before it was given in a written form.
Lexical and grammatical items were introduced and practised situationally and they
were selected and sequenced according to their frequency in real life communication.
The Cognitive Approach viewed language learning as rule acquisition, so
instructions given to students were often individualised. Perfect pronunciation and
13
error-free language production were seen as unrealistic goals. All four language skills
were considered equally important and practised thoroughly. The relation between
form and meaning was recognised and grammar was taught either inductively or
deductively.
The Humanistic Approach emphasised psychological aspects of language
learning. Class atmosphere was regarded as more important than materials or methods.
Peer support, interaction, self-respect and respect for others were given special
attention. Learning a foreign language was viewed as a self-realisation experience.
Translation was used heavily in the initial stages of learning to help students feel at
ease.
The Comprehension-Based Approach grew out of research into first language
acquisition which revealed that this process is quite similar to that of foreign language
acquisition. Listening comprehension was viewed as the most important skill and
learners were not expected to speak immediately, but when they felt ready, after being
exposed to adequate, meaningful input. Error correction was seen as counterproductive
and instead of rule learning, spontaneous acquisition of language was emphasised.
The Communicative Approach has been most widely accepted in the last few
decades and its main goal can be simply defined as getting students to communicate
fluently and accurately. This approach will be described in more detail later in section
3.2.9.

3.2 Teaching methods

A method is a pedagogical plan for presenting the language material to be

learned and should be based upon a certain approach. Since the beginning of the 20 th
century a number of methods have marked the development of the English language
teaching (ELT) methodology. The choice of a teaching method usually depends on
14
current trends, the syllabus, the particular learning group or even the abilities and
preferences of the teacher.
The basic features of the most widely-used methods in the history of language
teaching are given in the following subsections.

3.2.1 The Grammar Translation Method

The Grammar Translation method has been used for more than one hundred
years in language teaching. Historically, it was used in teaching Greek and Latin, but
later it was generalised to teaching modern languages. According to the proponents of
this method, the main goal of learning foreign languages is to be able to read foreign
literature and this is why the emphasis here is on grammar rules, vocabulary and
translation.
When the Grammar Translation Method is employed, classes are conducted in
the native language. A unit usually begins with a lengthy bilingual vocabulary list which
should be memorised. Grammar is taught deductively. The rules or paradigms are
explained explicitly, memorised and then applied in exercises which usually involve the
deconstruction of a sentence and translation. Little attention is given to meaning,
context, and spoken language.
Some key features of the Grammar Translation method are summarised by
Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979: 3):
 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of the target
language.
 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given.
 Grammar provides the rules for putting words together and instruction often
focuses on the form and inflection of words.
 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.
15
  Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in
grammatical analysis.
 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the
target language into the mother tongue.
 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
The basic principles of the Grammar Translation method do not require high
language proficiency from the teacher and this is why the method was considered
practical in the past when not many teachers were able to employ other teaching
methods. Some of the techniques that are often associated with the Grammar
Translation method are the following:
 Translation: students translate passages from the text in order to practise
grammar.
 Memorisation: students are expected to memorise long vocabulary lists,
grammatical rules and paradigms.
 Antonyms/Synonyms: students look for antonyms or synonyms in a text in order
to practise vocabulary.
 Fill-in-the-Blanks: students fill in the blanks with new vocabulary items or
grammatical items that should be practised.
The Grammar Translation method has been heavily criticised since the middle of
the 20th century when new teaching methods were designed and supported by the
contemporary theories of linguistics and psychology. However, in some countries it has
survived up to now owing to the fact that it requires neither highly proficient teachers
nor investment in teaching materials, which makes it economical and easy to employ.
The Grammar Translation method is certainly not the right one to be adopted in
modern language classrooms because it results in poor communicative competence. It is
focused on learning about the language rather than on using the language. Students
exposed to this method usually find the language learning experience boring and lose
their motivation.

16
3.2.2 The Direct Method

The Direct Method has also been in use for a very long time. Initially, it was
developed as a reaction to the Grammar Translation method, which failed to prepare
students to use the foreign language communicatively.
The basic principle of the Direct Method is that translation is never allowed.
Classes are held only in the foreign language from the very beginning of the language
course. The meaning of the words and sentences is never translated, but explained in
the foreign language, mimed, demonstrated or even drawn instead. All language skills
are worked on from the beginning, but oral communication is seen as the basic goal.
Students practise the language orally before doing any sort of written exercises. Much
attention is paid to pronunciation. Grammar is taught inductively and vocabulary is
emphasised over grammar.
Some of the basic principles underlying the Direct Method are given by Richards
and Rodgers (1986: 9-10):
 Classroom instruction is conducted exclusively in the target language.
 Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught.
 Oral communication skills are built up in a carefully graded progression
organised around question-and-answer exchange between teachers and
students in small intensive classes.
 Grammar is taught inductively.
 New teaching points are taught through modelling and practice.
 Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration, objects and pictures;
abstract vocabulary is taught by association of ideas.
 Both speech and listening comprehension are taught.
 Correct pronunciation and grammar are emphasised.
Since it can be rather difficult and time-consuming to explain meaning without
translation, proponents of the Direct Method have proved to be very inventive in

17
developing adequate teaching techniques. Some of the techniques typically used when
this method is employed are given by Larsen-Freeman (1986: 26-27):
 Reading Aloud: students read sections of passages, plays or dialogues out loud.
 Question and Answer Exercise: the teacher asks questions in the target language
and students answer in full sentences.
 Student Self-Correction: the teacher facilitates opportunities for students to self-
correct using follow-up questions, tone, etc.
 Conversation Practice: the teacher asks students and students ask other students
questions using the target language.
 Fill-in-the-Blanks Exercise: items use target language only and inductive, rather
than explicit, grammar rules.
 Dictation: the teacher reads a passage aloud a number of times at various
tempos, students write down what they hear.
 Paragraph Writing: students write paragraphs in their own words using the
target language and various models.
The Direct Method is the first method in foreign language teaching that totally
excludes the use of mother tongue in the classroom. It is also the first method that
recognises the fact, previously disregarded, that the main purpose of language learning
should be the use of language and insists on developing communication skills. A number
of methods developed later adopted this basic principle originally set by the designers
of the Direct Method.
This method, however, has some weaknesses. Firstly, not many teachers are so
highly proficient and skilled enough to be able to employ the Direct Method
successfully. Secondly, a great number of teaching techniques aimed at teaching in the
initial stages of learning were invented, but less attention was paid to the development
of more appropriate techniques for teaching advanced learners. This method requires
small-size classes, which most schools cannot afford. And lastly, when even occasional
translations are strictly avoided, the explanation of a word or phrase may sometimes be

18
very complicated and time-consuming, yet still not quite clear to learners. Translation
would, in fact, be a more efficient technique in such cases.

3.2.3 The Audio-Lingual Method (AL)

The Audio-Lingual Method was developed in the United States during World War
II. It was the first method that was theoretically supported and it was based on the
concepts of descriptive linguistics and behavioural psychology.
The basic goal of the Audio-Lingual Method was to develop communicative
competence in learners and it was thought that the best way to achieve this was to
conduct extensive repetition which would facilitate the learning of new sets of ’language
habits’.
The Audio-Lingual Method adapted many of the principles of the Direct Method
and its key features are summarizesed below:
 New material is presented in the form of a dialogue.
 Teaching materials are chosen by means of contrastive analysis.
 Structures are sequenced and introduced one at a time.
 Language skills are also sequenced and developed in the following order:
listening, speaking, reading and writing.
 Great attention is paid to good pronunciation which is practised from the very
beginning.
 Vocabulary is limited and practised in context.
 Little or no grammatical explanation is given explicitly.
 Much effort is taken to prevent learners’ errors.
 There is a lot of use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids.
The Audio-Lingual Method and the whole concept of learning through ’habit
formation’ were severely criticised during the 1960s because this way of learning tended
to focus on manipulation of the target language and to disregard content and meaning.
19
Nowadays, language drills are considered to be a mechanical type of exercise, but these
were heavily used in AL and were believed to be highly effective in establishing good
’verbal behaviour’ owing to continuous repetition.
The techniques commonly used in the Audio-Lingual method are the following
(Larsen-Freeman 1986: 45-46):
 Dialogue Memorisation: students memorise dialogues from the text book.
 Backward Build-up or Expansion drill: the teacher breaks a line into several parts,
students repeat each part starting at the end of the sentence and ‘expanding’
backwards through the sentence, adding each part in sequence.
 Repetition Drill: students repeat the teacher’s model as quickly and accurately as
possible.
 Chain Drill: students ask and answer each other one-by-one in a circular chain
around the classroom.
 Single-Slot Substitution Drill: the teacher states a line from the dialogue, then
uses a word or phrase as a ‘cue’ that students, when repeating the line, must
substitute into the sentence in the correct place.
 Multiple-Slot Substitution Drill: it is the same as the single slot, except that there
are multiple cues to be substituted into the line.
 Transformation Drill: the teacher provides a sentence that must be turned into
something else, for example a question to be turned into a statement, an active
to be turned into a passive, etc.
 Question-and-Answer Drill: students should answer or ask questions very quickly.
Most of the techniques listed above were later considered as ‘mechanical’
exercises that aim to develop proper ‘speaking habits’ through heavy repetition without
focusing on meaning.
The effects achieved with the employment of this method were really not long-
term, but the method proved to be highly effective in quick intensive preparations 2

2
This method was first used in the army.
20
when teaching students who lack the intrinsic motivation for language learning, but
have to do it for particular purposes (passing tests, for example).
In spite of its weaknesses, the Audio-Lingual method was another major step in
the history of language teaching due to a few important contributions. It was the first
method to separate the four language skills and to insist on developing all of them. It
also introduced language laboratories and listening comprehension into language
teaching.

3.2.4 The Silent Way (SW)

The Silent Way was designed by Caleb Gattegno and it is considered to be one of
the methods of the humanistic approach although it shares certain principles with the
cognitive approach, too (Larsen-Freeman 1986:51).
One of the main principles of this method is that teaching should be
subordinated to learning and that students should have an active role in this. The role of
the teacher is therefore to facilitate the activities and the teacher stays silent for most
of the time, not even giving his students the model language or correcting them.
Instead, the teacher encourages students to discover the regularities of the language
themselves and provides exercises that facilitate learning.
Initially, students learn the sounds of the foreign language which are introduced
through sound-colour charts and pronunciation is worked on from the beginning. In the
Silent Way, there is a strong focus on language structures although grammar rules may
never be presented explicitly. The syllabus is not fixed, but develops according to the
needs of the learners. All four skills are considered important. Errors are also regarded
important since they show what is still unclear.
The key principles underlying the Silent Way are the following (Richards and
Rodgers 1986: 99):

21
  Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather than remembers
and repeats what is being learnt.
 Learning is facilitated by accompanying physical objects.
 Learning is facilitated by problem-solving involving the material to be learnt.
The accompanying physical objects used in this method are well-known sound charts
and small rods of varying colours and length typically used to introduce vocabulary and
syntax.
Larsen-Freeman (Larsen-Freeman 1986:66-68) provides a description of some
common techniques closely associated with the Silent Way. The listing here is in
summary form only:
 Sound-Colour Chart: the teacher refers students to a colour-coded wall chart
depicting individual sounds in the target language ̶ students use this to point
out and build words with correct pronunciation.
 Teacher's Silence: the teacher is generally silent, only giving help when it is
absolutely necessary.
 Peer Correction: students are encouraged to help each other in a cooperative
and non-competitive spirit.
 Rods: rods are used to trigger meaning, and to introduce or actively practise
language; they can symbolise whatever words are being taught and can be
manipulated directly or abstractly to create sentences.
 Self-Correction Gestures: the teacher uses hand gestures to indicate that
something is incorrect or needs changing ̶ e.g. using fingers as words then
touching the finger/word that is in need of correction.
 Word Chart: words are depicted on charts, the sounds in each word
corresponding in colour to the sound-colour chart described above; students use
these charts to build sentences.
 Fidel Chart: a chart that is colour-coded according to the sound-colour chart but
includes the various English spellings so that they can be directly related to
actual sounds.
22
  Structured Feedback: students are invited to make observations about the day's
lesson and what they have learned.
This method has often been criticised as being too focused on building structure,
and missing out on cultural input through the language. It encourages the teacher to
assume a distance, but the silence of the teacher can prevent students from hearing
many active models of correct usage that they may find useful. In trying to create a less
teacher-orientated classroom, many say that the Silent Way goes too far to the opposite
extreme. Other problems are a little more practical in nature. Getting the typical SW
prerequisite materials together can take a lot of time and money because a great
number of sound and word charts as well as the rods should be prepared in advance.
However, what this method contributed to language teaching is viewing student
language learning as an "exploratory" process of hypothesis building and trying out,
which is a very valuable teaching principle.

3.2.5 Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia3 was designed by Georgi Lozanov during the period when the
Humanistic Approach was popular, and it involves the application of the study of
suggestion to pedagogy.
It is well-known that people use 5-10% of their full mental capacity. Language
acquisition, according to Lozanov (1979), could be much more successful if people could
overcome their psychological barriers and their fears of failure in learning. This method
aims to help learners maximise the use of their potentials by creating a relaxed
atmosphere in a comfortable classroom.

3
The method was originally called Suggestopedia, but in contemporary literature it is referred to as
Desuggestopedia (Larsen-Freeman 2001: 73)
23
 The use of Baroque music during the class helps increase alpha brain waves and
decrease blood pressure and heart rate. Students acquire the language through
dialogues, role-plays, music and drama. Their errors are tolerated and their only
homework involves re-reading the dialogue once before going to sleep in the evening
and once after waking-up in the morning. Some of the key features of this method are
the following:
 Learning is facilitated in an environment that is as comfortable as possible (soft
cushioned seats and dim light are desirable).
 Posters and decorations in the classroom encourage ’peripheral’ learning.
 Students are encouraged to assume new roles and names in the target language
to become more ’suggestible’.
 Baroque music is used to help students relax.
 Long dialogues are used and translated into the students’ native language.
 Errors are tolerated since the emphasis is on content, not the structure.
Grammar forms are not dwelt on.
The basic idea of this method is that learning takes place on two levels. On the
conscious level, students deal with the new language, but at the same time, on the
subconscious level, the music suggests that learning is pleasant.
Out of a number of techniques associated with Suggestopedia that Larsen-
Freeman (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 84-86) describes, just a few, quite typical ones are
chosen to be presented here:
 Visualisation: students are asked to close their eyes and visualise scenes and
events, which can help them to relax.
 ‘First Concert’: the teacher does a slow, dramatic reading of a dialogue
synchronised in intonation with classical music.
 ‘Second Concert’: students put aside their coursebooks and the teacher reads at
normal speed according to the content, not the accompanying classical music.
 ‘Primary Activation’: students playfully reread the target language out loud.

24
  ‘Secondary Activation’: students engage in singing, dancing, dramatisation and
games in which they use the language more spontaneously and concentrate on
the content of the material and not so much on its form.
Suggestopedia proved to be rather impractical because this method cannot be
easily employed in the majority of language teaching environments. The dim lighting,
large comfortable chairs and music selections are not readily available to most schools.
Moreover, in large teenage classes, a number of students would not find the relaxing
features of Suggestopedia so pleasant and would probably be less cooperative than
adult students with whom this method was originally employed.
Still, some principles of this method can be adopted and excellently combined
with more effective language teaching techniques. Playing soft music to make students
relax, decorating the classroom with posters featuring some grammatical or other
relevant language aspects to encourage peripheral learning and employing role-play
activities are useful techniques that can certainly facilitate the process of language
acquisition.

3.2.6 Community Language Learning (CLL)

Community language learning is a method designed by Charles A. Curran and is

considered as one of the methods of the humanistic approach.
Curran studied adult learning for years and discovered that new learning
situations can be very threatening for adults. This method is therefore patterned upon
counselling techniques and adapted to the peculiar anxieties and threats, as well as to
personal and language problems a person encounters in learning foreign languages.
According to Curran (1972), the anxiety and fear felt by students can be
significantly reduced if teachers become ‘language counsellors’. This means that the role
of a teacher is essential in creating a low-anxiety atmosphere, understanding students’

25
problems, being sensitive to them and helping students overcome their fears and adapt
themselves to a new learning situation.
In the beginning stages, the ‘syllabus’ is designed primarily by the students
(Larsen-Freeman 1986: 99) because they are more willing to learn when they have
created the material themselves. The teacher helps each student in the group,
individually providing translation, which is heavily used in the beginning. As students
progress and become more proficient, they become less dependent on the teacher’s
help, but they still have their teacher-counsellor’s aid whenever they need it. Group
work is encouraged because a sense of community can decrease anxiety and can
provide cooperation, which boosts the learning process.
Some of the key features of Community Language Learning are summarised
below:
 Learning a foreign language may be a threatening experience, so students should
be warmly encouraged by an understanding and supportive teacher.
 Initially, students are very dependent on the teacher, who is always around to
help them. Later, students become more independent.
 Translation is used whenever necessary because learning is more effective when
students understand.
 Group work and a sense of community are considered to be very useful in
lowering anxiety and promoting communication and cooperation.
 The emphasis is on spoken language and communication.
The basic techniques typically used in this method, more elaborately discussed in
Larsen-Freeman (2001: 103) are summarised below:
 Tape Recording: the teacher records the conversation among the students,
which is later replayed.
 Transcription: the transcription of the students’ conversation is done by the
teacher and serves as a basis for further activities.
 Reflection on Experience: students reflect on how they feel about language
learning and the teacher encourages them and supports them.
26
  Reflective Listening: students relax and listen to the recorded conversation.
 Human Computer: the teacher is always around to give a model for repetition or
to provide translation when students need it, and as much as students need it.
This method, however, has some disadvantages, as Brown points out (Brown
2007). In its design, Community Language Learning requires a heterogeneous group of
learners who all speak the same native language. Moreover, the teacher may be too
nondirective and rely heavily on inductive strategies of learning, even though adults in
particular benefit from deductive strategies as well. Virtually no one uses CLL exclusively
today because it is too restrictive in nature. Nevertheless, the theoretical tenets of CLL,
such as student-centred participation, discovery learning and the development of
student independence, can be creatively applied to any language programme.
The strengths of this method include creating a supportive community to lower
student anxiety and help them overcome threatening affective factors, such as making
errors or competing with peers (Brown 2007). In addition, students are not limited in
their topics of conversation.

3.2.7 Total Physical Response (TPR)

Total Physical Response is one of the methods developed during the

Comprehension Approach to English language teaching.
It was designed by James J. Asher, who thought that the most efficient teaching
method was one that could recreate the natural way children learn their native
language.
A baby spends months listening to the people around it, trying to make sense
out of what it hears, before finally speaking itself. The main goal of TPR is thus to
provide an enjoyable, stress-free atmosphere in which an appropriate ‘listening’ and
‘comprehension’ period, lasting for as long as necessary, could encourage learners to
respond.
27
 Some key features of TPR are summarised below (Asher 1977: 43):
 The teacher directs and students act in response.
 Listening and physical response skills are emphasised over oral production.
 The imperative mood is the most common language function employed.
Interrogatives are also heavily used.
 Whenever possible, humour is injected into lessons to make them more
enjoyable for learners.
 Students are not required to speak until they feel naturally ready or confident
enough to do so.
 Grammar and vocabulary are emphasised over other language areas. Spoken
language is emphasised over written language.
TPR involves a heavy use of the imperative and a lot of physical activity. Classes
are usually held in a very relaxed atmosphere and language learning is made fun. One of
the main reasons why this method was developed was to reduce stress in learning
foreign languages. In TPR, errors students make when they start speaking are tolerated
and, later, as progress is gradually made, they are corrected in an unobtrusive manner.
Students start speaking when they are ready and they are encouraged to feel successful
because it facilitates the process of learning.
When employed in the classroom, this method usually involves several steps:
 Step 1: The teacher says the command and performs the action himself.
 Step 2: The teacher says the command and both the teacher and the students
perform the action.
 Step 3: The teacher says the command and only the students perform the action.
 Step 4: The teacher tells one student at a time to do the commands.
 Step 5: The roles are reversed: the students give commands to the teacher and
to other students.
 Step 6: The commands are expanded and new sentences are produced.

28
 This method is generally viewed as an almost pre-requisite technique for
teaching young students or older students at beginner levels, but it should be
supplemented with other approaches as the students make progress in proficiency.
TPR is not the best method to choose for the purpose of teaching abstract
language because not all things are ‘physical’ and not all of our thinking is oriented
around the visible physical universe. On the other hand, it is a great method for young
learners before their cognition has developed enough to start considering more abstract
concepts.

3.2.8 The Natural Approach

The Natural Approach was the first attempt at creating an expansive and overall
"approach" rather than a specific "method", since it was developed by Tracy Terrel
(1977) and supported by Stephen Krashen and his theory of language acquisition.
However, the Natural Approach is usually viewed as one of the methods compatible
with the Comprehension Approach.
In some ways, this method is similar to TPR in emphasising the importance of a
relaxed atmosphere and a ‘silent period’. The basic principle of the Natural Approach is
that, instead of language ‘processing’, there should be a lot of language ‘acquisition’ in
the classroom which is best achieved with a considerable amount of comprehensible
input from the teacher.
Meaning is considered to be the essence of language. Vocabulary is emphasised
over grammar and errors are not corrected in the early stages of learning.
Some of the key features of the Natural Approach are the following:
 Language should be acquired, not analysed.
 Comprehensible input is essential for triggering acquisition and it should be in
the form of spoken language that is understandable to the learner or just a little
beyond the learner’s level.
29
  Comprehension precedes production, so the learner’s production should be
delayed until speech emerges.
 Meaning is more important than form, so errors should not be corrected unless
communication is hindered.
 Language is acquired for communication and should be practised
communicatively.
 The atmosphere in the classroom should be as relaxed as possible.
The techniques that are typically used in the Natural Approach are those that
develop learners’ communicative skills, like games, role-plays, dialogues, discussions
and group work. Some TPR techniques are also adopted, especially in the beginning
stages and when working with children. The whole process of learning is designed to
involve three stages:
 Preproduction: the focus is on developing listening skills.
 Early production: students struggle with the language and make many errors
which are corrected based on content and not structure.
 Extending production: fluency is promoted through a variety of more challenging
activities.
The Natural Approach was very popular in the 1980s and its emphasis on
developing speaking skills and communication was quite appealing, but some of its
weaknesses were also pointed out by a number of methodologists. Firstly, it is not clear
enough what ‘comprehensible’ input should mean especially when working with mixed-
ability classes. Secondly, it is not clear how long teachers should wait for speech to
emerge and let their students remain silent (there might be some students who would
never say a word).
However, the basic concepts of the Natural Approach threw new light on some
aspects of language acquisition.

30
3.2.9 The Communicative Approach (CLT)

The Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching involves

methods based on the belief that the basic purpose of language and therefore of
language learning is communication. This idea grew out of the works of the British
linguists Firth and Halliday and the American linguist Hymes who viewed language first
and foremost as a system of communication.
Brown emphasises four main features of the Communicative Approach: (Brown
1993: 245):
 Classroom goals are focused on all of the components of communicative
competence and not restricted to grammatical or linguistic competence.
 Language techniques are designed to engage learners in the pragmatic,
authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organisational
language forms are not the central focus but rather aspects of language that
enable the learner to accomplish their purposes.
 Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying
communicative techniques. At times, fluency may have to take on more
importance than accuracy in order to keep learners meaningfully engaged in
language use.
 In the communicative classroom, students ultimately have to use the language
both productively and receptively in unrehearsed contexts.
The Communicative Approach seems to integrate the basic goals of all the
previous approaches to language teaching giving equal importance to linguistic and
communicative competence which had never before been balanced.
Linguistic competence is the knowledge of forms and their meaning.
Communicative competence, on the other hand, is the knowledge of language functions
which enables students to use the language appropriate to a given social context. It is

31
not important to learn the forms of the language unless they can be used fluently and
appropriately.
Most of the previous approaches and methods failed to emphasise the
importance of either fluency or accuracy and usually insisted on developing one of them
more than the other. The trends came and went, reacting and counter-reacting to each
other and the shifts in their orientation were sometimes quite radical – from the
emphasis on learning grammar rules which resulted in poor speaking abilities to insisting
on developing speaking skills while disregarding accuracy. In CLT both are equally
important and the main goal of teaching is to make students communicatively
competent.
In CLT less attention is paid to the presentation and discussion of grammar rules
than it is in some traditional approaches and fluency is built through the use of
authentic language, but it is not encouraged at the expense of clear unambiguous
communication. All language skills are integrated from the beginning and practised
through role plays, dramatisation, language games, working in groups or pairs, which
allows students to adjust their use of the foreign language to different social contexts.
The target language is not drilled, but practised in communication among students.
Teaching materials are carefully selected and reflect real-life situations. Authentic
resource materials are often used.
One of the most important assumptions in CLT is that the content of a language
course should not be designed on the basis of sequenced grammatical structures only,
but on semantic notions and social functions as well. Students learn that many different
language forms can be used to perform a single social function and that one language
form can serve different functions. This resulted in new syllabus and text-book designs
which enabled easier communicative language learning.
Some of the techniques typically used in CLT are listed below:
 Authentic materials such as newspapers, timetables, etc. are used to prepare
students for real communication.

32
  Scrambled sentences which should be put in their original order in a text help
students learn about cohesion and coherence properties of a language.
 Information gap and problem solving serve to make students communicate with
one another purposefully, like in real life communication.
 Role plays give students an opportunity to practise communicating in different
social contexts and in different social roles.
Although CLT is widely accepted and considered as the most adequate approach
to modern teaching, its basic principles are sometimes misunderstood. Brown (1993: 78-
80) warns that overdoing certain CLT features, for example, engaging in real-life
authentic language to the exclusion of helpful devices (such as controlled practice) can
be counterproductive. There are numerous interpretations of what CLT really is and this
seems to be an umbrella term covering a variety of methods aimed at developing
communicative competence. In practice, it is sometimes understood as pure ‘focusing
on communication’, which paradoxically also results in poor communicative
competence owing to inaccurate language use.
A useful idea of what CLT should involve is given by Littlewood (1981: 86), who
distinguishes between pre-communicative and communicative activities. Pre-
communicative activities can be structural or quasi-communicative and they aim to give
the learners fluent control over linguistic forms of the language. These activities have a
subordinate function – to prepare the learners for later communication. In
communicative activities, the learners have to activate and integrate their pre-
communicative knowledge and skills in order to use them for communication. Pre-
communicative activities usually precede communicative activities, especially in the
beginning stages of learning. However, with intermediate and advanced students, it is
possible to reverse this sequence and to begin with role plays and discussions and then,
after identifying the weaknesses of students’ oral production, to continue with
controlled practice.
This weaker version of CLT can be successfully employed in school teaching
because it integrates various activities into a coherent methodology which should lead
33
to developing students’ communicative competence and meet the requirements of the
school curriculum as well.
Although CLT is the latest and currently accepted approach to foreign language
teaching, all the previous approaches contain certain valuable principles and techniques
which can be adapted to meet the needs of different teaching contexts. A good teacher
should always have in mind that it is more important to teach effectively than to stick to
one method only, no matter how popular it is.

Further reading:
Celce-Murcia, M., ed. (1991): Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language
Brown, H.D., (1993): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Larsen-Freeman, D., (1986): Tecniques and Principles in Language Teaching
Richards, J.C., Rogers, T.S., (1986): Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching
Prator, C.H. and Celce-Murcia, M. (1979): ‘An outline of language teaching
approaches’

34
4 FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE FOREIGN LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

It is well-known that some learners acquire a foreign language quite successfully

and relatively quickly while some learners experience great difficulties and can hardly
reach native-like proficiency. Although there is a widespread belief that being ‘gifted’ is
what leads to success in foreign language acquisition, this is an extremely simplified
point of view that cannot explain this complex process.
Experienced teachers know that the effects of teaching are closely tied to a great
number of relevant factors. Apart from syllabus design, learning environment or
methods and techniques employed in teaching, the success in foreign language
acquisition is greatly influenced by the learner’s personality, age, and their strategies
and styles of learning.

4.1 Age

Age has always been considered an important factor in second language

acquisition. The widespread belief that children learn faster than adults has been
analysed in a number of scientific works. This belief, usually supported by a ‘critical
period hypothesis’ initially connected with first language acquisition and later applied to
SLA, claims that there is a biologically determined period in life when language can be
acquired more easily. The ‘critical period’ for language acquisition was an important
issue in applied linguistics for a long period of time and a number of theories were
offered from different points of view and subsequently tested in scientific research.
One of these studies examined neurological development and its relevance to
language acquisition. It is well known that as the human brain matures, some functions
are assigned (lateralized) to the left hemisphere of the brain and some to the right.
Language functions are generally controlled in the left hemisphere, which was
35
confirmed through scientific research. The process of lateralization starts around the
age of 2 (Lenneberg 1967) and is believed to finish around puberty, although there are
some assumptions that it may be finished as early as at the age of 5. These neurological
facts were often used to support the theory that the human brain loses its plasticity
while maturing (Scovel 1969), making it difficult for adults to acquire the language as
easily and fluently as children, but it was difficult to prove this hypothesis, as well as to
establish the time when lateralization takes place. Although neurological explanations
failed to support the belief that children learn languages better than adults, they offered
a new perspective useful in other aspects of language learning.
Jean Piaget’s study on human cognitive development was often related to
success in foreign language acquisition. Intensive intellectual development takes place
in the first sixteen years of life and goes through several stages. Piaget distinguishes the
sensiomotor stage that lasts from birth to the age of 2, the preoperational stage, lasting
from the age of 2 until the age of 7 and the operational stage starting at the age of 7
and finishing at the age of 16. Within the operational stage, there is a crucial period
when the concrete operational stage changes to the formal operational stage at the age
of 11 when a person becomes capable of formal thinking and abstraction. This theory
led to better method design by pointing out that abstract definitions are useless when
teaching young children, but effective when teaching adults. Ausbel (1964) concluded
that although children may be superior to adults in acquiring good pronunciation, adults
can benefit more from formal instruction 4 owing to their higher intellectual
development. Cognitive explanations, thus, also failed to support traditional belief and
prove the advantages young children have in FLA.
These discussions and other similar ones were all based upon the long-lasting
assumption that children learn faster, which was taken for granted, and not seriously
investigated up until the 1970s. A serious study on age differences in SLA was conducted

4
Some adults, however, fail to acquire a foreign language successfully regardless of their cognitive
superiority due to other factors discussed in chapter 8.
36
in the Netherlands5 resulting in findings that older learners are better than the younger
ones in morphology, syntax and vocabulary (teenagers being the best) and that young
learners are just slightly better in pronunciation. A number of similar studies showed
that older children (around puberty) are the fastest in FLA, adults being the second
fastest and young children being the slowest. This was a surprising fact not simply
because of the widespread belief ‘the younger the better’, but because of a great
number of people who started learning a foreign language in early childhood and later
reached an almost native-like proficiency without much effort. The explanation seems to
be quite logical – the starting age is not so important itself, but the length of exposure
to a foreign language is. People who start learning a foreign language during childhood
and go on learning it for years are much more likely to attain a high level of language
proficiency. Although children learn fastest around puberty, people can start learning
foreign languages at any age, but starting it in childhood seems to facilitate the process
of learning in the future and the acquisition of good pronunciation.
Age, therefore, does not determine the success in foreign language acquisition,
but the style of learning, the attitude to the learning environment and the choice of
adequate teaching methods and techniques.

4.2 Cognitive Factors

Although the age of a learner does not seem to be as important in successful

language acquisition as it is in the choice of teaching methods, there are, naturally,
enormous cognitive differences between adults and children, which account for some of
the difficulties in FLA. Intellectual development, superior in adults, is considered to be
necessary in any type of learning. In foreign language acquisition, adolescents and adults
can make use of their better-developed abilities for abstract logical reasoning to achieve

5
See: Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle (1978)
37
an analytical understanding of the new language being studied. Cognitive development
undoubtedly aids language learning.
However, a number of studies investigating the correlation between intelligence
and successful language learning have shown that a high IQ does not necessarily lead to
effective language acquisition. Generally, intelligence tests include some categories that
have little to do with foreign language acquisition and omit others that seem to be
important in this process. Certain cognitive factors, such as verbal intelligence,
phonological processing ability or long-term memory capacity strongly influence the
student’s ability to learn a second language and it is generally believed, from everyday
experience, that some people have a ‘gift’ for languages and some do not. This special
‘gift’ studied in educational psychology is explained as specific cognitive learner qualities
needed in foreign language learning. In ELT methodology these cognitive qualities are
called language aptitude.
Since intelligence tests have proved to be poor predictors of successful language
learning, a number of different tests, called language aptitude tests, have been designed
since the 1960s with the intention of sorting out individuals before undergoing language
training. Higher language aptitude is significant for an individual learner, but establishing
students’ language aptitude can be even more important in identifying the strengths
and weaknesses of the students or in arranging students in more homogeneous groups
(if possible) to adapt the teaching to their specific needs.
Language aptitude tests usually focus on three features:
 the ability to discriminate the speech sounds of a language
 the ability to relate the speech sounds to their graphemic representation
 the ability to pay attention to the formal (grammatical) characteristics of a
language
Although higher language aptitude positively influences the acquisition of a foreign
language, it is not an inborn cognitive capacity that cannot be changed. Language
aptitude can be improved to a large extent with adequate teaching techniques that
concentrate on the areas of difficulty. In other words, a good teacher should be able to
38
raise the students’ level of language aptitude by identifying the strengths and
weaknesses of each individual and by conducting well-planned teaching that meets their
particular needs.

4.3 Retention and Forgetting

Retention and forgetting are inverse concepts denoting the natural processes that
take place in any kind of learning. Retention refers to the amount of the material that is
still effective after learning, while forgetting refers to the amount lost.
The first important study in this area was carried out by Hermann Ebbinghaus in
18856. After studying the memorisation of a meaningless syllabus, Ebbinghaus managed
to describe the shape of the ’forgetting curve’. A typical graph of the forgetting curve
shows that people tend to halve their memory of the newly learned knowledge in a few
days or weeks unless they review the learned material. It also shows that by far the
most forgetting takes place in the first few moments after learning (see Figure 1), but
the speed of forgetting generally depends on a number of factors.

Figure 1

6
It was published in Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology
39
 Although the base forgetting rate differs little between individuals, there are a
few factors that, practically, have a great impact on the amount of material forgotten
and these are:
 the difficulty and meaningfulness of the material being learnt
 the representation of the material
 physiological factors such as stress, sleep and the like
One of the aims of teaching is to enable the necessary conditions and help
learners develop the appropriate techniques that aid retention. Since the process of
forgetting is a natural one, taking place in every sort of learning, the retention of the
material can be improved by working on the factors that affect retention. Firstly, the
material being learnt should be meaningful to students. A great number of empirical
studies have shown that if learners find the material meaningful, they are likely to retain
it more effectively. Secondly, associations and mnemonics have been found to be
significantly helpful in improving retention. When the material to be presented is not
meaningful enough (e.g. irregular verbs) or when it is hard to memorise for any other
reason, teachers should help their students invent techniques that enable them to
remember the material more successfully (mediating associations, etc.). Lastly, revising
the material and actively recalling it increases the likelihood of efficient retention. Each
repetition in learning increases the interval when the next repetition is needed.
In a school environment, most students show retention of 90% after 3-6 days when
averagely difficult material is to be learnt. This means that most students are likely to
forget 10% of the material presented within that period of time. Although there are a
number of factors that influence foreign language acquisition, what teachers can do in
creating better conditions for efficient retention is:
 present the material clearly enough so that the students can understand it well
 teach their students how to improve their memorisation techniques
 revise what was learnt at regular intervals
40
4.4 Personality Factors

Although cognitive factors might also be treated as ‘personality factors’, what is

usually meant by this term in foreign language methodology is the emotional side of
human behaviour – affective states and feelings. The role of affective factors was not
carefully studied and recognised until the Humanistic Approach to language teaching,
but it is well known to every experienced teacher that language learning involves a
whole range of positive and negative emotions and that the learner’s characteristics and
attitudes strongly influence success in language learning. Some of the issues worth
considering here are self-esteem, inhibition, anxiety, risk-taking, extroversion,
introversion and motivation.
Self-esteem indicates the extent to which an individual believes himself to be
‘capable, significant, successful and worthy’ (Coopersmith 1967: 4-5). It can be global,
expressing the general belief in one’s capacities, situational, which is, in language
learning, expressed as belief in one’s capacity to learn a foreign language or it can be
specific, such as the belief in one’s capacity to speak or write in a foreign language
(Brown 1993: 137). In numerous studies, all three types of self-esteem were found to
correlate significantly with success in language learning, which means that students with
higher self-esteem can do better and learn languages more easily. Having low self-
esteem, on the other hand, can seriously hinder the process of learning. If students
believe they cannot do well in a certain activity, they avoid it. Since they avoid it, they
fail to get practice and to perform well when asked to respond in the class. However, if
students with low self-esteem are positively encouraged and motivated, they will
gradually be more likely to work hard on developing their language proficiency. Progress
made in language learning (or any other activity) raises students’ self-esteem and aids
further learning. These seem to be interacting factors. The relevant question in language
teaching is – should the teacher make an effort to raise the self-esteem of the students
41
or to raise their level of proficiency which would lead to their higher self-esteem?
Modern approaches to language teaching focus on both levels at the same time. The
teacher can exert an influence both on the performance and well-being of students. As
Brown says, good teachers succeed ‘because they give optimal attention to linguistic
goals and to the personhood of their students’ (Brown 1993: 138). Students’ self-esteem
can be enhanced quite simply – by giving more attention to their achievements and not
to their failure, by creating the most positive learning environment that offers support
and encouragement and by designing learning objectives according to students’
abilities, which means selecting adequately challenging tasks.
Inhibition is a feeling that is closely related to self-esteem and personal
development. As children grow up, they are faced with a number of challenging
situations in which their developing ego needs protection. Inhibition is a way of building
defences that can protect personal beliefs and values from threats coming from the
outside world. As a person grows up, the system of values and beliefs that has been
built becomes relatively stable and there is less need for protection, but some people
have a fragile ego even in adulthood.
It is believed that a person with high self-esteem is less likely to be inhibited,
while those with lower self-esteem need more protection and develop stronger
inhibition. This form of defence from the outside world makes language learning more
difficult because the main purpose of language is an ‘exchange’ with the outside world.
Learning a foreign language necessarily involves making mistakes which can lead to a
deep-seated fear of inadequacy or deficiency and to unwillingness to ‘take risks’ and get
involved in communication. Lowering inhibition is, thus, necessary in the classroom and
it is achieved by providing good learning conditions where learners’ errors are treated as
a normal stage in their proficiency development. Moreover, students should be
encouraged to self-monitor and self-correct as they make progress in learning since self-
assessment not only lowers their inhibition in the classroom, but also raises their
awareness of the learning process. And, again ̶ focusing on students' strengths rather

42
than weaknesses is a powerful way to break down learning blocks and overcome
inhibition.
Anxiety is a vague feeling of worry, nervousness or tension related to success in
future activities and tasks. Anxiety, as well as self-esteem, can be manifested on three
levels: global, situational and specific. It was once assumed that anxiety should be
avoided at all costs because of its hindering effects on the process of learning. It is a fact
that global anxiety can negatively affect foreign language learning since it is usually
related to low self-esteem and high inhibition. As far as situational or specific anxiety is
concerned, an important distinction should be made between debilitative and
facilitative anxiety. Debilitative anxiety can be understood as a feeling of nervousness
that is strong enough to prevent a person from fully expressing his or her potentials, like
failure at an oral exam owing to an inability to answer the examiner’s questions in spite
of the acquired knowledge. Facilitative anxiety, on the other hand, is a sort of ‘creative’
nervousness that keeps a person alert and tense to the extent needed to activate
potential and develop a responsible attitude to the tasks to be fulfilled. It turns out that
feeling facilitative anxiety may have positive effects in language learning while being
overanxious or absolutely relaxed may seriously affect this process. The role of the
teacher is, therefore, to establish both an encouraging relationship with students and
create a motivating learning atmosphere that lowers debilitative anxiety closely related
to high inhibition. Krashen claims that a low ‘affective filter’ is necessary for acquisition
to take place (Krashen 1987). The affective filter is a mental block, caused by high
anxiety, low self-esteem and high inhibition. Fortunately, applied linguistics at the end
of the 20th century devoted much attention to affective factors in language learning and
all modern approaches to foreign language teaching insist on creating a relaxed
atmosphere and supportive attitudes in the classroom.
Risk-taking is considered to be necessary in successful language learning
because much of the process requires a sort of guessing, which might result in making
errors. This may lead to the wrong assumption that high risk-taking can be very useful in
language learning, but numerous psychological studies show that people who achieve a
43
lot are often moderate risk-takers. In learning languages, it means that a successful
learner makes a calculated guess and takes a moderate ’risk’ of being corrected or
misunderstood instead of taking high risks, such as producing meaningless utterances
before they have developed the necessary skills. Such eager risk takes are relatively
rare, however, and teachers are more often faced with quite a different problem – how
to encourage students who are unwilling to take risks and who prefer being passive and
‘safe’. Low risk-taking may lead to fossilization – a permanent incorporation of certain
patterns of error. Learners who are unwilling to take an active role in the classroom
often stay within language patterns that accomplish the function, but contain errors
since they avoid the situations in which their errors could be corrected. A very
important task in teaching is, therefore, to encourage learners who are unwilling to take
risks and control those who are high risk-takers and tend to dominate the whole
classroom.
Extroversion and introversion were traditionally considered very important in
successful language learning. An extrovert student is usually imagined as lively, talkative,
outgoing and active in the classroom, thus more likely to learn a foreign language easily.
An introvert student is the one who is shy, reserved and unwilling to participate, which
means less likely to make progress. However, these traditional assumptions are quite
misleading. Firstly, an extrovert is a person who needs other people to build self-esteem
and a sense of wholeness, while an introvert receives affirmation from within himself or
herself. Both types can be talkative or shy. Secondly, a number of studies carried out in
the 1970s and 1980s show that the correlation between extroversion and language
proficiency is not as high as was assumed. Extroversion can be a positive factor in
developing oral skills, but not in other aspects of language learning. Since these
personality factors cannot be changed by a teaching methodology, it is wise to respect
personal differences in the classroom and employ techniques and resource materials
that help both types of learners advance.
To sum up, language is primarily communication, so foreign language learning
and teaching should be aimed at establishing meaningful communication in the
44
classroom. The first requirement towards this goal is an affective affirmation of the
student. A focus on the subject matter of learning is no longer enough since humanistic
education takes into consideration that learning is affected by how students feel about
themselves. Every learner requires first and foremost: to be noticed, to be attended to,
to be valued and to be affirmed (Whitaker 1995).

4.4.1 Motivation

Motivation, simply defined, is an affective factor that supports and gives

persistence to the learner’s striving for a goal. The correlation between learner
motivation and language learning success is very high and has been scientifically proven
in numerous studies and practically confirmed in everyday teaching experience. When
students are interested, engaged and eager to acquire new skills, they tend to do better.
Although success in language learning is determined by a number of interrelated
factors, and not by a single one, motivation is considered to be one of the crucial factors
in this process.
Due to its significant role in foreign language learning, motivation has been given
a lot of attention in numerous studies and scientific works 7. Different types of
motivation have been defined and examined.
One of the distinctions often made is between integrative and instrumental
motivation (Gardner and Lambert 1972), the former occurring when the learner wishes
to identify with the culture of the target language community, the latter when the
learner’s goals for learning the language are functional (e.g. passing an exam). According
to the relevant research8, integrative motivation leads to more successful foreign
language acquisition.

7
Well-known studies on motivation in terms of needs or drives were carried out by Ausbel (1968),
Maslow (1970).

8
Spolsky (1969).
45
 Another distinction, between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, seems to be even
more relevant in the process of learning. According to Deci (1975: 23), ‘intrinsically
motivated activities are ones for which there is no apparent reward except the activity
itself’. When people engage in certain activities just for their own sake and consequently
feel competent and satisfied even if the successful completion of the activity is not
socially rewarded, they are intrinsically motivated. Extrinsic motivation, on the other
hand, is one that makes people engage in certain activities because their completion
leads to rewards from outside the self. These rewards can be in the form of grades,
prizes, money, promotion, etc. Both types of motivation can be very powerful and can
positively influence success in language learning. A number of studies have tried to
reveal the effects of each of these types and conclusions show that intrinsic motivation
results in knowledge that is much longer retained 9. Extrinsic motivation, similar to
behavioural concepts of reward and punishment, can be very useful in certain
situations, but its effects are considerably weaker due to the lack of genuine interest in
the subject itself.
A well-known fact from everyday experience is that a lack of motivation in
learners affects the process of learning. Students who have to learn a foreign language
just because it is imposed by a curriculum or for some similar reasons are usually less
successful than those who are genuinely interested in the foreign language being
studied.
An interesting distinction between different types of motivation and a very
important one for foreign language teaching is given by Brown (1993) who distinguishes
three types of motivation. Global motivation refers to a general orientation to the goal
of learning, situational motivation varies according to the situation in which learning
takes place (some children prefer learning in private schools to learning in state
schools), while task motivation is the motivation for performing particular learning tasks
(e.g. although genuinely interested and eager to learn the language, students may find
some writing tasks boring).
9
See more in Maslow (1970) and Ramage (1990).
46
 Most recent approaches to language teaching and a great number of teaching
methods take into account the importance of motivation in general and promote the
employment of such teaching techniques that keep students interested and engaged
and thus raise the level of task and situational motivation which may lead to a higher
global motivation and more efficient language acquisition. Some of the keys to raising
students’ motivation are the following:
 Creating a safe and friendly atmosphere – Most students tend to do better if
they feel accepted and valued. Encouraging peer cooperation and having a
supportive emphatic attitude enable the teacher to lower students’ inhibition
and create conditions for successful learning.
 Creating situations in which students feel the sense of accomplishment ̶
Providing positive feedback can increase students’ satisfaction and encourage
positive self-evaluation. This is enabled by choosing the right techniques of error
correction, focusing more on students’ strengths, appreciating their progress and
selecting the tasks according to students’ abilities.
 Connecting language learning to interest outside the class ̶ If students relate
their classroom experience to outside interests and activities, it makes
developing language skills more relevant and more successful. Some useful
activities can involve listening to English-language songs, watching English-
language films or videos, and reading English- language websites or newspaper
articles.
 Keeping students engaged – Passivity decreases students’ motivation and
curiosity. Students’ enthusiasm and willingness to participate affect the quality
of class discussion as an opportunity for learning. This is why it is important to
select the techniques and activities appropriately designed to suit the needs of a
particular learner group depending on their age, proficiency level and their
interests.
 Varying the activities in the classroom ̶ Students learn by doing, making, writing,
designing, creating, and solving. Modern teaching should involve a whole variety
47
 of different activities and not just reading texts and doing exercises. Small group
activities should be combined with pair work and individual work and each
lesson should provide opportunities for different types of learners to make
progress.
To summarise, raising students’ motivation and enabling adequate learning
conditions requires not merely high education and mastery of teaching techniques on
the part of the teacher, but also a genuine interest in students, which involves the ability
to establish good personal relationships as well as the ability to recognise their needs
and interests.

4.5 Styles and Strategies

Although foreign language learning is strongly influenced by teaching methods

and techniques, some learners achieve a high level of language competence regardless
of the type of teaching they have been exposed to. What makes them so successful,
apart from high motivation or other positive psychological factors, is often the way of
language learning, or more precisely, the way learners cope with problems that are
present in this process.

A successful lesson requires attention to structure, target language, and

activities to absorb and apply the information, just to name a few important things.
However, the teacher must also realise that one lesson does not fit all students or all
classes. When faced with a new problem, such as foreign language acquisition, learners
generally tend to react in different ways cognitively or affectively. Some of them are
discussed in the following sections.

4.5.1 Learning styles

48
 Learning styles are the general approaches that students may use in acquiring a
new language or in any other sort of learning. In other words, learning styles are
individual differences in processing new information - for example: some people tend to
learn better when auditory input is provided, while some others benefit more from
visual input. Learning styles generally operate on a continuum, which means that, in
spite of being primarily an auditory learner, a person can also get and process new
information through visual stimuli. Having a particular learning style is often considered
to be a constant feature of an individual, but most learners tend to adapt their styles to
different demands. On the other hand, the teacher should consider the preferred
learning styles of the students to enable better learning conditions in the classroom and
higher motivation.

Learning styles were thoroughly investigated and defined in the 1980s and
different ’lists’, some of which contain as many as around 20 learning styles, were
created. A few styles, most often discussed in FLA, are selected for our purpose.

The dominance of the left- or right-brain hemisphere is strongly believed to be

one of the factors that determine the way we process new information. As a person
grows up and matures, some functions become lateralized to the left hemisphere and
some other to the right hemisphere of the brain. Though people use every part of their
brain in the learning process, and none are strictly “right brain only” or “left brain only,”
most are either left brain dominant or right brain dominant – meaning not every
teaching style completely fits their learning style.

The left hemisphere is usually associated with logical, analytical thought and,
thus, with classroom setting and deductive learning, while the right one is usually linked
to emotional, visual and auditory information processing and to ’natural’ learning.
Learners with left-brain dominance prefer planned and structured language learning and
benefit from formal instruction and controlled practice, while those with right-brain

49
dominance prefer spontaneous communication and benefit from a good model or
‘input’ (see Table 1).

Left Brain Right Brain Table 1

Logical Random

Sequential
Rational Intuitive

Analytical Synthesizing

Holistic Depending on the

Objective Subjective individual style, some settings may

be more or less suitable for a
Looks at parts Looks at wholes learner. Generally, the traditional
classroom environment is believed
to be more suitable for learners with left-hemisphere dominance since it enables the
sequenced presentation of the new material, analytical thinking, controlled exercises,
discussions and individual tasks that they like. Right-hemisphere students, however,
prefer visual stimuli, group activities like role plays and projects that encourage their
creativity. These facts should be taken into account in good teaching and some of its
aspects should satisfy the needs of both.
Field (in)dependence is closely related to the dominance of the left/right brain
hemisphere. A field-independent style enables an individual to distinguish parts from a
whole, to analyse details separately and to concentrate on something. A field-
dependent style is quite the opposite and enables an individual to see the whole
picture, to have a larger view. Both can be very useful in most cognitive problems. Field
independence is usually developed as the child grows up and it is often associated with
self-confidence and independence in general. It is considered to be useful in deductive
learning, language analysis and learning in classroom settings (quite similar to left-brain
dominance). Field dependence is, on the other hand, generally associated with empathy
50
and perception of other people and it is, thus, considered important in developing
communication skills (similar to right-brain dominance). This style is usually seen as an
advantage in ’natural’ language acquisition. An average learner tends to be inclined to
one of the two styles to a greater extent, but no person is absolutely field-dependent or
field-independent since different styles should be perceived as the ends of a continuum
rather than dichotomies. Depending on the context and the requirements, a person who
is generally field-dependent, may, therefore, invoke his or her field-independent
potentials when appropriate. This fact should be well understood by teachers whose
task is not to make their students develop identical learning styles, but to respect their
individual preferences and to try to encourage them to invoke different cognitive
potentials when necessary, by the employment of adequate teaching techniques.
Preference shown toward visual or auditory input is another important
distinguishing feature in learning styles. Visual learners generally benefit from reading,
studying charts, writing and looking at pictures, wall-charts and flashcards while
auditory learners prefer listening, oral explanation and taking part in speaking activities.
Effective teaching should try to respect the needs of both types of learners, but a few
things should be kept in mind when choosing appropriate teaching techniques.
A singular focus on listening to and acting on oral information actually becomes a
weakness for auditory students since they tend to pull only the relevant information
that they hear, yet not glean some of the finer points, which may result in incomplete
comprehension of the target language or in conducting a step in an activity incorrectly.
Moreover, information written down has less meaning until auditory students also hear
it (which is why it is good to make them read it aloud). On the other hand, visual
students need to write down information in order to remember it, and they should be
given enough time to do it. Since they may experience problems with pronunciation,
intonation and oral skills in general, they should be encouraged to improve their
speaking skills with the use of flashcards and other visual stimuli they like. In conclusion,
visual and auditory input should both be supplied not just for improved comprehension,
but for creating opportunities for both types of learners to make balanced progress in all
51
language skills. Fortunately, modern approaches to FLT advocate the employment of
versatile teaching techniques that focus on both auditory and visual types of learning.
Ambiguity tolerance is defined as the ability to be open-minded, to tolerate
ideas and propositions that are not compatible with the system of beliefs already
established. Foreign language learning is a process that requires a level of ambiguity
tolerance because a great number of words and rules, different from those in a learner’s
mother tongue, are more easily acquired by those who are flexibly open-minded.
Although this learning style is considered to be supportive in language acquisition,
benefits are greater if it is present only to a certain extent. Some degree of ambiguity
intolerance is also necessary, so that ideas and propositions can be adopted selectively
and connected meaningfully to the cognitive structure already existing. On the other
hand, being too tolerant or too intolerant of ambiguity can seriously affect successful
language learning. The best results are, therefore, achieved by those learners that are
flexible and open minded enough to accept some new propositions, but careful enough
not to accept and ’pile up’ into their memory stock everything they come across.
To conclude, learning styles are naturally developed preferences and inclinations
toward new information processing and should be respected in teaching by providing
adequate contents to all learners. To be able to choose the right teaching techniques
and materials, a good teacher should know the students well and recognise their
individual learning styles and their needs. When it is possible, however, he should also
encourage the learners to try to invoke their underused potentials and adapt their
learning styles to some extent.

4.5.2 Learning Strategies

Learning strategies are defined as specific actions, steps or techniques used by

students to enhance their own learning. Learners employ different strategies in problem
solving and finding their personal way to struggle with difficulties and make progress.

52
These strategies generally fit their individual learning style. Although learners often
choose learning strategies consciously, the extension of such useful techniques can also
be provided by the teacher. Developing effective learning strategies is an important task
that should be supported in FLA because it contributes greatly to faster and better
progress. The most important strategies employed in foreign language learning are
usually divided into learning and communicative strategies, but there is a more
systematic classification provided by Rebecca Oxford (2003) that includes the following:
 memory strategies – that help students store and retrieve information; useful in
memorising vocabulary and structures at lower levels, but not efficient in grammar
learning later, at higher levels
 cognitive strategies – that enable learners to manipulate the language material in
direct ways (through reasoning, note-taking, analysing, practising, etc.)

 compensation strategies – that allow learners to use the language despite their
often large gaps in knowledge; commonly known as a form of communication
strategies

 meta-cognitive strategies – that are employed for managing the learning process
overall; often strong predictors of foreign language proficiency

 affective strategies – that help to regulate emotions, motivations and attitudes

 social strategies – that involve learning by interaction with others and

understanding the target language culture; being the indicators of integrative
motivation ̶ strongly associated with foreign language proficiency

What these strategies practically involve can be seen in the sub-division illustrated in
Table 2:

Table 2

53
  Practising

 Receiving and sending messages strategies

Cognitive Strategies
 Analysing and reasoning

 Creating structure for input and output

 Guessing intelligently
Compensation strategies
 Overcoming limitations in speaking and
writing

 Centring learning

 Arranging and planning learning

Meta-cognitive Strategies

 Evaluating learning

Memory Strategies  Creating mental linkages

 Applying images and sounds

 Reviewing well
 Lowering anxiety
Affective Strategies
 Encouraging oneself
 Asking questions

Social Strategies  Cooperating with others

 Empathising with others

A very systematic and detailed list of learning strategies (including cognitive and
meta-cognitive ones) created by O’Malley at al. (1985: 582-584) is presented in
Appendix 1 showing more precisely numerous practical techniques they may involve.

54
Communication strategies10, often discussed in literature, present another important set
of commonly employed techniques in foreign language acquisition and they are related
to the employment of verbal or non-verbal mechanisms for the productive
communication of information. A typical list of communicative strategies is well
presented by Tarone (1981: 286) and also shown in Appendix 1.
It is vitally important for a good teacher to know a whole range of different
strategies that may be employed in foreign language learning not just to be able to
assess the preferred styles and strategies of his students, but to be able to assess his
own strategies commonly employed, to be aware of his own preferences and possible
biases. Efficient teaching should undoubtedly rely on versatile contents and materials
that enable different types of learners to apply their individual learning styles and
strategies and to make progress in learning. Furthermore, good teaching should also
help learners extend their own repertoire of language learning strategies and adopt a
wider range of efficient techniques. This is where an educated and attentive teacher can
help his students enormously.

Further reading:
Brown, H.D., (1993): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Krashen, S.D., (1987): Principles and Practice on Second Language Acquisition
Maslow, A.H., (1970): Motivation and Personality
O’Malley, J. M., Chamot, A. U., Stewner-Manzanares, G., Russo, R. P., and Kupper,
L. (1985): ‘Learning strategy applications with students of English as a second language’,

Oxford, R. (2003): Language Learning Styles and Strategies: An Overview

10
In Oxford’s classification, they belong to compensation strategies.
55
5 THE CONTENT OF TEACHING

The content of teaching should generally be selected in respect to the age, the
perceived level and the goals of the learner. In most cases, it is provided by educational
or school authorities, but it often has to be adapted by the teacher who has immediate
contact with the learners and, thus, the best insight into their achievements, progress
and motivation.

5.1 Syllabus

Simply defined, the syllabus represents the selection and ordering of the
language items that should be taught. Different types of syllabuses have been used in
different approaches to language teaching. In the Reading Approach, the recommended
56
syllabus was generally text-based, while in the Situational Approach, the basic units of
the syllabus were the language structures and vocabulary needed in particular
situations. The Humanistic Approach was the first one to suggest a learner-oriented
syllabus which should be built during the language course according to the goals of the
learners.
Most approaches, however, have used a structural syllabus which is organised
around sequenced grammatical items as the basic units for teaching and therefore
aimed at developing linguistic competence. The main idea underlying this type of
syllabus is that learning and practising grammar is a good preparation for further
communication. The Communicative Approach, on the other hand, advocates the design
of a new syllabus type, the notional-functional one, organised around notions (meanings
such as age, time location, etc.) and functions (greetings, requests and other social
transactions) while grammar structures should be taught just as a means to fulfill certain
functions. This type of syllabus is aimed at achieving communicative performance.
The structural syllabus is often regarded as being opposed to the notional-
functional one, which was, for some time, seen as more advantageous. The truth is that
both types have their advantages and disadvantages. The structural syllabus is
considered efficient in providing detailed knowledge of the language, but the knowledge
itself is sometimes not sufficient if the learners fail to integrate it and use it successfully
in practical situations. The notional-functional syllabus, on the other hand, may be
focused too much on providing performance units in purely communicative activities to
the extent that learners fail to acquire the underlying system of rules they could later
rely on to extend their repertoire when necessary.
Although these two perspectives on the language subjects are commonly
represented as being in opposition, they are really complementary, each compensating
for the limitations of the other (Widdowson 1990: 132). The syllabus is generally
designed according to educational policy, but since it is realised by pedagogical
methodology, it does not have to be interpreted in line with its intentions. Therefore,
using a structural syllabus may also lead to developing communicative competence if
57
the limitations of the syllabus are overcome by an appropriate teaching methodology.
Sometimes, a teacher may find out that the syllabus fails to meet the learners’ goals or
that realising its content may be too ambitious for a particular learner group. In such
cases, it is wise to adapt the content of teaching and methods employed to the specific
needs and goals of the learners.
Recently, a document called The Common European Framework (CEF), published
by The Council of Europe, has had a lot of influence over syllabus design in Europe. It
describes the content of a language course and defines the levels achieved, which is
very important since, once acquired, these levels of language competence can be
understood and recognised in all other countries that accept the common policy of
language teaching and testing.
The Council of Europe categorises learners as follows:
 C2 - Mastery (Nearly native speaker level)
 C1 - Operational proficiency (Advanced)
 B2 - Vantage (Upper-Intermediate)
 B1 - Threshold (Intermediate)
 A2 - Waystage (Pre-Intermediate)
 A1 - Breakthrough (Beginner/Elementary)
Although somewhat broadly defined, this concept of levels can be quite valuable
in syllabus and test design as well as in course planning. Such standards offer more
reliable guidelines for teaching both to teachers and to educational authorities.

5.1.1 Content Ordering

The content and the ordering of teaching units should be selected so as to

contribute best to the development of foreign language acquisition and the process of
learning itself. The criteria for syllabus design can be different depending on the

58
educational policy and the goals set, but in traditional school environments, a few
principles are generally respected in syllabus design:
 The content ordering of a syllabus should match the natural process of
learning. There have been a number of studies trying to find out if there is a
‘natural order’ of language acquisition that takes place regardless of the learning
environment (Ellis 1985) and the results showed that the order of acquisition is,
in most cases, the same. Efficient teaching should respect this natural process
and the ordering of language units to be taught should, therefore, conform to
the sequences that are typical in natural language acquisition. Corder (1979)
points out that efficient language teaching must work with, rather than against
natural processes in order to facilitate achievement. This ‘natural’ sequence of
language units in a syllabus should not, however, be absolute, i.e. once the item
is learnt, the learners should not be expected to be instantly ready to use it
practically in different contexts. To improve learners’ competence and their
application of the learnt items, the units of the syllabus should be arranged
cyclically, thus occasionally revised and extended as the teaching process
develops.
Other common criteria for syllabus design are mainly based on well-known
pedagogical principles:
 Units in teaching should be arranged from simpler ones to more complex ones.
The simplicity of language items is not always easy to determine, but a number
of studies have investigated the level of difficulty learners are faced with when
dealing with certain language items and these findings generally correlate with
the observations made by experienced teachers. The simplicity or complexity can
be defined on the basis of the phonological, morphological or structural
properties of particular language units. Simpler ones are considered to be
acquired more easily and should, thus, precede the complex ones in teaching.
 Teaching should develop from what is already known to what is yet to be
learnt. When students can rely on concepts they are already familiar with, to go
59
 on with learning new ones, they feel more confident and less anxious about the
learning process. Moreover, foreign language acquisition is a process in which,
like in many other learning situations, knowledge already acquired is constantly
being extended and ’built upon’ by linking new pieces of information to already
existing ones.
 Teaching should develop from more frequently to less frequently used items.
This principle is quite practically oriented and useful in preparation for further
communication. Language items (both grammatical and lexical) that are highly
frequent in real communication should be given more attention, reflecting reality
in the classroom environment. The selection of vocabulary items in different
coursebooks is a good example of the application of this principle (books for
children, adults or ESP books). Although the content ordering of the syllabus
should be carefully designed to respect all the relevant criteria, it may still be
inappropriate for a particular learner group due to a number of reasons. In such
cases, instead of following the ‘prescribed’ content order too strictly, it is wiser
to disregard the guidelines given and adapt the content of teaching to meet the
needs of the learners.

5.2 Work Plan

A work plan is done by teachers and consists of day-to-day decisions on how to

interpret the syllabus into a series of lessons. In most state schools, teachers are
expected to present their work plans based on the syllabus prior to the beginning of the
course.
Work plans are very important in foreign language teaching as well as in any
other type of teaching. While designing the plan, a teacher makes the outline of a
course and has time to develop ideas and prepare the resource materials well in

60
advance. If absent from a class or sharing classes with a colleague, a teacher provides
clear and useful guidelines of what work was planned for a particular lesson.
Making a work plan should be done in accordance with the school syllabus and a
coursebook and usually involves selecting the items to be covered and arranging them
within the period available. A work plan can be more or less detailed ̶ it can just give
general items or topics to be done or, additionally, a range of specific activities. It is very
important that a work plan includes various topics and various activities (and not only
grammar and vocabulary). Work on language skills and language systems should be
balanced and appropriately included. Attention should be paid to linking between work
done on different days (revision, homework check, etc.).
In practice, however, most work plans consist of a unit title and an additional
remark referring to the type of the lesson (presentation or practice) since many teachers
are not really keen on making official work plans (but make short-term ones for their
own use). Admittedly, in some cases, teachers rightly complain about the usefulness of
work plans. When starting to teach a new generation of students and having to plan
more than 100 lessons in advance, teachers can hardly predict the development of the
course, how successfully their new students will be achieving the goals and the
problems they may face. Respecting the planned content of each lesson, in some cases,
may prove rather inefficient. However, work plans are generally quite useful because
they make the process of teaching better organised and well-thought through in
advance. Some adaptations, if necessary, can be introduced during the course, but the
basic ideas of what should be done during one school year generally remain unchanged.

5.3 Resource Materials

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 The importance of resource materials is strongly emphasised in modern teaching
and a lot of attention has been given to extending the variety and raising the quality of
resource materials in the last few decades.
One of the most widely used resource materials is the coursebook which,
together with a board and a chalk, used to be the only tool in traditional teaching.
Fortunately, current teaching practice is considerably different and a whole range of
resource materials is used in contemporary foreign language teaching. Apart from
authentic and adapted texts, newspaper extracts, additional exercises and games
provided in teachers’ resource books, a variety of other visual and audio materials are
generally used to provide adequate input, to get students more engaged and make
learning more interesting and enjoyable.
Most coursebooks nowadays are designed with accompanying tapes, CDs or
DVDs which provide useful recordings with authentic speech and short films where,
apart from listening to native speakers, students often learn a great deal about the
foreign culture. Computer CDs with word or grammar games are efficiently used with
young learners to make learning fun.
Even if schools cannot afford such resource materials and the equipment that is
necessary, there are other, cheaper, materials that can be successfully used to make
learning easier and more interesting. Posters, postcards and decorations support so-
called peripheral learning, provide some useful information about the foreign culture
and, at the same time, make the learning environment more pleasant and comfortable.
Arts and crafts tools and even small toys can be used with young children to raise their
interest and engagement in classroom activities.
The choice whether to use basic or additional resource materials depends largely
on the age and needs of the learners. Modern teaching should be supported by well-
chosen and adequate visual and audio materials that satisfy different learning styles and
generally raise motivation.
When selecting resource materials, teachers have two options: to choose
authentic ones, or to rely on those adapted for particular levels of knowledge. Authentic
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materials are natural, such as extracts from TV or radio broadcasts, books, newspapers
or magazines, notices on posters, and the like. Adapted materials are specially designed
for learners and provide clear examples of language items in context. Such materials are
often simplified and graded, and usually rich in the specific language item. These are
usually adapted tape-recordings, coursebooks, graded readers and exercises designed
for specific learner needs.
After a long era of artificially designed coursebooks with unnatural texts,
authentic materials were welcomed for some time as the only appropriate resource for
successful foreign language teaching. However, in the beginning stages of learning, such
materials are not likely to be very suitable. Respecting Krashen’s reasonable hypothesis
that the adequate input, essential for effective language acquisition, should be one level
above the learner’s competence, it is rightly assumed that authentic materials can be
too difficult and quite incomprehensible to elementary or pre-intermediate students
and thus not the ‘adequate input’ that is required. Such groups of students would
benefit much more if exposed to well-selected, adapted and comprehensible resource
materials which can be excellently designed and motivating, until they reach the level of
competence that enables them to get more from authentic input.

5.3.1 The Coursebook

The coursebook is the most widely used and basic resource material in classroom
teaching. The content of the course-book should be compatible with the content of a
particular syllabus and, in some cases, the coursebook is especially designed to enable
full realisation of the syllabus through the appropriate selection and ordering of
teaching units. If there is no specially published coursebook, a suitable one is usually
selected and approved by educational authorities according to how efficiently it covers
the syllabus content.

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 Having a coursebook is an enormous advantage in foreign language teaching.
Firstly, most coursebooks are written by experienced methodologists who have tested
their ideas practically, so teachers (especially less experienced ones) can rely on the
well-organised selection of appropriate and versatile language input, such as dialogues,
texts, grammar and vocabulary exercises, illustrations, suggestions for speaking practice,
etc. Using a coursebook is, thus, energy-saving since it provides ready-made material
suitable for specific learner goals. Secondly, the selection and ordering of language
items are generally well done in coursebooks owing to the experience of their authors,
which facilitates the design of yearly work plans as well as the realisation of the syllabus.
Finally, most coursebooks are published with accompanying teacher’s books that give
useful ideas and detailed instructions on how to teach and use the material offered. This
makes the preparation of the teacher even easier.
Modern coursebooks are designed in line with contemporary trends in foreign
language teaching and aimed at developing all language skills, unlike traditional ones,
but in spite of their high quality and versatile content, a coursebook itself is not the only
key to success in language learning. What is more important is how the material is used
and what methodology is employed, since the teacher has immediate contact with the
students, getting feedback and observing the difficulties they face.
Syllabuses, work plans and coursebooks are valuable aids in well-organised
foreign language learning, but teachers should feel free to adapt the content and the
methodology of their teaching when it is necessary to meet the needs of their learners.

5.4 Lesson Planning

Preparation for a lesson is essential in a teacher’s job. Students at teacher

training courses and novice teachers usually prepare very detailed plans for their lessons
while experienced teachers may write just a few notes and examine the basic and

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additional materials to be used. Both, however, spend some time thinking, predicting
feedback, sequencing, organising, and simplifying the content, with a view to making
the learning process easier to their students.
When planning a lesson, the teacher should have a very clear idea of what their
goals are and what the students are expected to achieve. The syllabus and the work plan
give useful guidelines, but the material selected for a particular lesson should be studied
carefully in order to be used in the best and most effective way. Neither the syllabus nor
the text book can determine the content of a particular lesson since it depends on the
learners’ previous knowledge and achievements as well as on a number of other
conditions. It is, therefore, difficult to say what a good class should be like. A primarily
speaking lesson will be different from a basically grammar lesson. A class with young
children will differ greatly from a class with adult learners. However, what all these
types of classes should consist of is a beginning, middle and end.
The beginning of a lesson is usually a sort of a warm-up activity aimed at getting
students’ attention and leading them into the topic in a natural and, hopefully, relaxing
or entertaining way. A warm-up can be a short game, an anecdote, a song or a question
triggering discussion, etc.
The end of a lesson is usually some sort of revision, such as a comprehension
check, a brief summary or giving homework related to what was done in the class.
The middle part of a lesson depends largely on the topic and the teaching
methodology employed. A very popular lesson-shape consists of three sequenced
components – presentation, practice and production. The first step in this kind of lesson
is the presentation of a language item through a suitable text or recording, aided by
explanations from the teacher. Then, the learners practise the presented language item
in appropriate ways through different sorts of exercises. Lastly, learners try to use the
language items productively. This common lesson-shape is useful in many situations,
especially when working with low-level classes, but it should not be the only concept
used in lesson planning.

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 Sometimes, the whole lesson can be devoted to practising through a variety of
activities and sometimes this traditional sequencing can be altered and the class may,
for example, begin with speaking practice that leads to teacher’s explanations
(presentation).
Whatever content or sequencing is chosen for a particular lesson, it should be
done with respect to a very important general principle: variety in lesson planning is
essential. Each lesson itself, as well as a series of lessons over a period of time, should
involve various activities that alternate between working individually and working in
pairs or groups, teacher-centred or learner-centred activities, developing productive and
developing receptive skills, working on accuracy and working on fluency or performing
both demanding and relaxing tasks. Such a variety of differently-oriented and differently
designed activities suits the needs of different learning styles students have and lays
emphasis on all language skills, thus resulting in efficient and well-balanced acquisition.
The most useful activities commonly used in the classroom, according to relevant
research, are: working in small groups, role plays, language games, reading topical
articles, oral presentations given by students, cloze exercises, using video materials,
repetition drills and free writing (Nunan 1988).
Apart from selecting appropriate and versatile activities, a good lesson plan
should focus on adequate sequencing. It should also predict how long each of the
activities will take and what problems may arise during the lesson as well as how these
problems should be solved.
No matter how well-planned the lesson may be, there might be some constraints
to its realisation and unexpected situations a teacher has to deal with. In such cases, a
teacher should be prepared to respond to the learners and adapt what was planned
even to the extent of throwing the plan away if necessary, since it is more important
that the teaching is in line with the current situation in the class than with the previously
designed lesson plan.

Further reading:
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 Ellis, R., (1985): Understanding Second Language Acquisition
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching
Widdowson, H.G., (1990): Aspects of Language Teaching

6 TEACHING GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY

Before discussing some important aspects of teaching grammar and vocabulary,

it is useful to go back to language teaching theories of the 20 th century and the role of
formal instruction in the classroom setting. Important factors in foreign language
learning are the language environment and the type of learning associated with it.
Classroom language learning and language learning in the target language
environment (under ‘natural’ conditions) are sometimes contrasted in literature, but
they actually present two ends of a continuum. Natural language learning or
‘acquisition’, according to Krashen’s distinction, is the process in which the learner is
surrounded by native speakers, exposed to the foreign language and given constant
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‘input’ in a natural way which may be acquired subconsciously, without a deliberate
analysis of the language form and controlled practice. On the other hand, this type of
language acquisition is rarely so ‘pure’ and even the language acquisition in the target
language community is often aided by explanations and suggestions from friends and
relatives or by instructions and definitions found in books and dictionaries, all of them
being some sort of ‘formal instruction’. Classroom language learning is undoubtedly an
artificial setting, where formal instruction plays a significant role and where learning
(conscious data processing and retention) is supposed to take place instead of
acquisition. However, this setting is not necessarily devoid of some sort of input and if
authentic language is sufficiently presented to the learners, acquisition may take place.
It is, therefore, often a mixture of both acquisition and learning.
Natural language acquisition frequently results in better fluency and
communication skills, but classroom language learning can lead to a more balanced
development of all language skills. However, the order of acquisition, as the relevant
studies11 show, is not significantly affected by the setting. Natural settings cannot be
adapted to meet the needs of a learner, but classroom teaching can be conducted in
different ways and aimed at different goals depending on what the teaching goals are
and who the learners are. A few models of teaching will be presented as an example.
One of the factors that is believed to influence some aspects of foreign language
acquisition is certainly the way a foreign language is taught to students. The section that
deals with teaching approaches and teaching methods reveals great differences in
theoretical principles and the corresponding practical techniques that have marked the
rapid development and progress in applied linguistics.
Different points of view have been expressed in a number of theories, just a few
of which are chosen to be presented here.
 The non-interface position – As pointed out earlier, Krashen claims that teaching
grammar gives little effect because the presentation of formal rules has two
11
Studies investigating the order of acquisition were carried out by Dulay and Burt, Larsen-Freeman,
Krashen, Shapira, Butterworth and Hutch, Cook and other linguists. For more information, see Eliis (1985:
54-64).
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 functions only: it satisfies learners’ curiosity and enables the ‘monitor’ to
function (Krashen 1981). According to Krashen, the key to successful language
acquisition and fluent production is the exposure to adequate input, while
formal instruction helps learners to ‘monitor’ (control and correct) the language
they have already acquired. A sequenced structural syllabus, thus, fails to meet
the necessary conditions for efficient learning and the effective pedagogical
programme should involve the comprehensible classroom input, a lot of
communicative activities and the sufficient quantity of input (extensive reading is
thus very important as a good source of authentic input).
 The interface position – Contrary to Krashen’s hypotheses, Sharwood-Smith
believes that formal instruction contributes significantly to foreign language
acquisition and that teaching grammar improves communicative ability
(Sharwood-Smith 1981). If the cognitive development of the students allows it,
grammar forms should be explained so that the students can practice them in
the classroom and outside it until they start using them subconsciously in fluent
speech. Teaching grammar (or ‘conscious-raising’, as Sharwood- Smith calls it)
can be very useful if appropriate teaching methods and adequate techniques are
employed regarding learners’ goals and abilities. Most of the problems in
classroom learning are not the result of grammar teaching itself, but of the
wrong type of teaching.
 The variability position – Bialystock claims that instruction must consider the
specific goals of the learner and make an attempt to provide the appropriate
form of knowledge to achieve these goals (Bialystock 1982). If a foreign language
is needed for communicative purposes, to be used mostly in informal discourse,
not much language analysis is necessary in teaching, although instruction itself
would not hinder acquisition and may even indirectly support it. On the other
hand, if a foreign language is to be used in discourse that requires careful,
conscious planning, then a style that is both automatic and analysed should be
developed by formal instruction.
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 All three positions presented focus on the model of teaching and the role of
formal instruction in a classroom setting. Each of them offers quite a different point of
view, none of which has been found wrong. On the contrary – all three positions have
been tested in empirical research and their hypotheses at least partly confirmed. This
may be a bit surprising, since the role of formal teaching in classroom learning presents
an important issue in ELT methodology and has often been discussed in an attempt to
find the best solution.
However, it turns out, that with or without formal instruction, language
acquisition can be achieved and that instead of assessing which of the hypotheses
offered is the best, it is wiser to look for the valuable concepts in each of them and
adopt those that satisfy the needs and goals of particular learner groups and learning
environments. No matter which one the teacher personally tends to prefer, much of his
teaching in the classroom setting is focused on teaching grammar and vocabulary.

6.1 Teaching Grammar

To be able to speak a language and to say what they mean, students must have
some grammatical knowledge. In some teaching approaches, teaching grammar used to
be the basis of the language course and it was sometimes done through endless rule
memorisation and conjugation of verbs. Trends shifted and the emphasis was later
moved from grammar to communication.
The role of grammar teaching was often disputed and considered inefficient in
foreign language acquisition. In the Communicative Approach, the main goal of
language learning is communication and there is a strong emphasis on communicative

70
activities, but the linguistic competence of students is also recognised as part of
communicative competence. The role of grammar has, consequently, been redefined
and teaching grammar nowadays means enabling language students to use linguistic
forms accurately, meaningfully and appropriately (Larsen-Freeman 1991: 280).
Employing adequate teaching methods and techniques makes the learning of
grammar more efficient and more enjoyable than it used to be. One of the first
decisions a teacher has to make when planning a grammar lesson is which approach to
choose – a deductive or an inductive one. Teaching deductively means presenting the
rule first and then continuing with exercises and communication. This approach is more
teacher-centred. Teaching inductively, on the other hand, involves guided activities and
practice through which students discover the rules by themselves and this is why it is
more learner-oriented. One or the other of these types of grammar teaching was usually
strongly favoured in different approaches to language teaching (in the Grammar-
Translation Approach, for example, the deductive one was employed, while in the Direct
Approach, the inductive one was thought to be better). Nowadays, however, most
methodologists agree that both approaches to grammar teaching have their advantages
and that both should be used depending on the age of learners, their cognitive styles,
the knowledge they have and the language item they should work on.
As far as the inductive approach is concerned, the teacher has another decision
to make – whether to state the rule or not to give it explicitly at all. A great number of
learners like to hear the rule and feel that they benefit and get more confidence from
this kind of formal instruction. When working with children, however, due to their
incomplete cognitive development and inability to comprehend abstractions, grammar
rules should not be given explicitly.
Contemporary trends in language teaching emphasise the importance of
teaching grammar for communication, which means that the form, meaning and
appropriate use of grammar items should be interrelated in teaching as they are in real
communication. It doesn’t mean that all the three components of a grammar item will

71
be worked on during one class, but it is important to realise how important they all are
and to give them all adequate attention during the teaching process.
Grammar items are usually sequenced in teaching as they are in a syllabus and
they are often ‘recycled’, which means revised and extended from time to time. This
ordering enables focusing on different dimensions at different times. The ultimate goal
of teaching grammar is to enable students to speak correctly and this is why teaching
meaning and usage as well as employing communicative activities in practising grammar
are essentially important.
Teaching a grammar unit typically involves the presentation, practice and
production (use) of the grammar item. This doesn’t mean that the lesson shape has to
conform to this sequence, nor that all the three stages have to be performed during one
class. Regardless of their ordering and the time devoted to them, they are all present in
most grammar teaching.

6.1.1 Presentation

Presentation is the stage at which the students are introduced to the form,
meaning and use of a new piece of language. A good presentation should, above all, be
very clear and easy to understand. This is often achieved by simple, logical and
systematic explanations and examples. The presentation should also be efficient and
productive, enabling students to make new sentences themselves and to prepare them
to use the items taught. Teachers should try to prepare presentations that are
interesting and, thus, engage and motivate their students.
There are different ways to present a grammar item – by using dialogues, texts
or recordings that contain the new language item, by using drawings and illustrations
featuring situations where the language item can be used appropriately etc. This is often
followed by the teacher’s help in the form of:

72
  modelling – giving a clear example of the language item orally (with normal
speed, stress and intonation)
 isolation – giving special emphasis to the parts students should focus on
 writing on the board – (which should be clear and involve underlining the critical
points)
 drawing time lines – which illustrate the representation of a tense and aspect
 explanations – which can be done more or less overtly, with or without the use
of technical words depending on the age and the level of knowledge of the
students (e.g. saying: You don’t start the sentence with ‘often’, or –Adverbs of
frequency are generally placed after the first auxiliary or in front of the lexical
verb in Simple Tenses)
Although the foreign language should be used in the classroom as much as
possible, sometimes explanations in the mother tongue can help when grammar is being
taught since some students may fail to understand instructions in a foreign language
well.
If a language item is presented inductively, there are other options that allow
students to discover new grammar for themselves. Unlike the previously described
techniques in which the teacher gives examples or asks the students to focus on the
examples selected, discovery techniques are those where students are given examples
of language through a text, dialogue, recording and similar, and asked to find the rules
themselves. As the students try to discover the rules, they have to concentrate, fully use
their cognitive capacities and, thus, engage in the activity. This technique can be time-
consuming, but it produces excellent results since it requires their full attention and
logical thinking, not just understanding and memorisation. The most common
techniques used in inductive grammar learning are:
 previewing – being exposed to grammar items in a text or recording and
absorbing the new language before the presentation
 text study – concentrating on new language used in a text and recognising its
properties
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  problem-solving ̶ taking part in solving grammar problems like discovering
different meanings of a language unit, identifying errors, etc.

6.1.2 Practice

Practice activities are the most important part in learning grammar, since
understanding the rules and memorising them do not result in correct speaking unless
students have the opportunity to try these rules out by themselves.
When practising grammar, the focus is on language accuracy and teachers
should correct students’ errors and enable them to learn how to use the items studied
correctly and make progress.
There are different techniques used for practising grammar depending on the
methodology employed. The most common technique in traditional grammar teaching
was using drills. This type of exercise was later severely criticised as being mechanical
and linked to rote learning, but most methodologists agree that, in some cases, this
technique can still be efficiently applied, although the techniques should generally be
aimed at preparing students to use grammar items in real situations and, thus, more
communicatively oriented. However, most teachers rely on a number of techniques that
are present in most course-book activities and commonly used in the classroom:
 Drills – Although not very creative and mainly mechanical ways of getting
students to demonstrate and practise their linguistic abilities, drills can be a very
quick and efficient way of practising a new item and correcting students.
Students are usually expected to produce questions, give answers, transform
one language form into another or substitute one language item with an
appropriate one. Drills are generally focused on learning the form and should not
be used for too long since these are not the most attractive exercises that can be
offered to students.

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  Written practice – Probably the most common technique used for practising
grammar since such exercises can be done either in the classroom or at home.
Some of these exercises are practically written drills and these should be used to
a limited extent and when the focus is on mastering the form. Different
substitution drills, transformations and question-answer exercises can be used at
the beginning stages of learning a grammar item. However, there is a great
variety of other written exercises that are more focused on meaning and on
integrating the new item into the already built knowledge of the foreign
language. Students are often asked to match two halves of sentences, to finish or
produce sentences, to rearrange the word order, to fill in the gaps with the
appropriate language item, and similar.
 Games – A very efficient and entertaining way of practising grammar. They are
designed to make students learn while at the same time having fun or
competing. Different types of quizzes and questionnaires, competitions, memory
games or board games can be designed to require or enable the use of a
particular grammar item.
 Interaction activities – Students work in pairs or small groups and practise
grammar through solving problems or exchanging information. There is always a
purpose to this communication and an appropriate context for using the
grammar item studied, so these activities reflect real-life situations and prepare
students for uncontrolled, natural communication.
Practising grammar is a very important stage in the process of learning and
students should have enough time and opportunity to master the language item. Since
it is extremely important to keep them interested and engaged at the same time, these
practice activities should be carefully chosen, varied and increasingly oriented to
communicative purposes.

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6.1.3 Production

Production is the last stage in learning a grammar item. After having enough
practice, students can be expected to use their knowledge in moderately controlled or
uncontrolled speech or writing.
Activities that are used in this stage should always be communicative. These can
be group discussions, role-plays, purposeful writing and other activities designed to
engage students and to make them feel they are preparing for natural communication,
while at the same time trying to use the knowledge acquired in a non-threatening
classroom environment.
It is important to point out that the selection of activities for grammar practice
and production should generally respect not only the educational goals, but the
personal interest of the learners as well. If students can relate language items to their
experience and interests outside the classroom, they are more likely to participate and
master them successfully. A grammar class can then become truly interesting and
engaging in spite of the widespread prejudice that practicing grammar is generally
boring.

6.2 Teaching Vocabulary

Vocabulary typically refers to single words (e.g. book, table) but this term is
often used interchangeably with the term lexis that refers not only to single words, but

76
to common patterns of words ‘going together’ (collocations, like breaking news) or so-
called word-chunks that are used as fixed phrases.
The importance and usefulness of lexical items are easily recognised by most
learners who can communicate, even at the beginning stages of learning, by using
appropriate lexis and who get their message across in spite of their limited knowledge
of grammar.
Although lexical items are the first to be learnt, the process of learning them
seems never-ending later since English is considered to have the richest vocabulary of all
the living languages and learners often come across unknown words even at advanced
levels of learning. What makes learners initially enthusiastic and satisfied is the fact that
the items learnt at the beginning stages are often immediately useful and very frequent
in everyday spoken language. As the learning process goes on, many new words are
accumulated and not all of them are used so frequently. Some items may gradually be
forgotten and some others may become part of our receptive (or passive) lexis (we
understand them, but don’t use them).
Learning lexis is, therefore, a long and difficult process which should be
simplified by well-planned teaching. Traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary above
elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they
appeared in reading texts. This indirect teaching of vocabulary was based on the
assumption that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of other
language skills, which has been proved insufficient to ensure vocabulary expansion.
Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the
syllabus, and taught on a well-planned and regular basis. Firstly, vocabulary teaching,
like grammar teaching, should be done systematically and the new items practised
thoroughly and secondly, students should be encouraged and taught how to use
English-English dictionaries and how to memorise lexical items.
A very important principle in modern teaching is that lexis should be worked on
in appropriate contexts. This is why it is usually linked to reading and listening tasks.
When students are expected to memorise lists of isolated words, they fail to realise how
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these words function in a sentence, what sort of discourse they fit in and how they can
be combined with other words.
Apart from teaching words in an appropriate context, in some cases, it is quite
effective to teach collocations or words followed by commonly used prepositions. For
example, when explaining the word borrow to students, some teachers often provide
additional information and explain that borrow and lend have the same lexical
equivalent in Serbian (contrasting confusing pairs of words should generally be left for
later stages when the learners have mastered both). Paradoxically most students
remember what these two words have in common, but forget which one is appropriate
in a certain context. It is, therefore, better to teach these words separately with the
common prepositions (borrow from/ lend to) to help students remember their meaning
and appropriate use.
It is important to note that, unlike teaching grammar, where the presentation of
a complex unit can be relatively long, explaining new lexis usually takes less time since
the number of new lexical items per lesson should be limited, otherwise most students
would fail to memorise them.
When related to reading or listening tasks, lexis can be worked on before, after
or during the listening/reading activity.

6.2.1 Presentation

Presenting new lexical items before the activity is usually done in order to enable
the students to understand the text or the listening material better. In such cases, new
words and phrases can be presented through a short story told by the teacher, a game
or a picture (matching the words to pictures or definitions) or through brainstorming
activities in which students think of words related to the topic and extend their
knowledge with the help of the teacher.

78
 Dealing with unknown words during reading or listening activities is usually done
by a brief translation or explanation so that the students can understand crucial parts of
the text.
More detailed work often follows the listening/reading activity. Students are
usually required to find synonyms, guess the meanings and definitions of unknown
words, provide antonyms and appropriate examples or to group words according to
similarities in meaning.
The teacher has a very important role in the presentation of new words since the
meaning and the use of a new item have to be clear to students. Although time-saving,
translation should be used as little as possible, but not avoided at all costs. There are
numerous efficient techniques that can be successfully used to get meaning across:
 miming (particularly useful and entertaining when working with
children)
 explaining the meaning in the foreign language (using types of
definitions that are simple enough to be understood by all the
students)
 giving examples that clarify the meaning (using the word in a typical
and illustrative context)
 giving synonyms (well-known to the learners)
 drawing
 pointing to objects and pictures, etc.

6.2.2 Practice

After the presentation of new lexis, students can hardly be expected to use all
the new items immediately. They need time to remember them and opportunities to

79
practise using them. Most coursebooks contain appropriate exercises dealing with
lexical items and they usually involve:
 matching lexical items to pictures
 matching lexical items to others (e.g. collocations, synonyms, sets of
related words, etc.)
 using prefixes and suffixes to build new lexical items from given words
 filling in gaps
 filling in crosswords, drawings, diagrams
 doing memory games
Most exercises are composed and can be sequenced quite similarly to ones
aimed at practising grammar. Modern coursebooks and vocabulary practice books offer
exercises that are well-designed and can be used either in the classroom or at home.
They are generally aimed at familiarising students with the English lexis and preparing
them for further ‘productive’ activities.
Since successful practice and production are strongly linked to affective factors,
raising students’ motivation is crucially important in good teaching. Additional resource
materials and activities in the classroom should thus be chosen in line with students’
personal interests and experience to make vocabulary practice more relevant and more
successful.

6.2.3 Production

It is important to distinguish between two types of production as far as lexical

items are concerned. When teaching new words and phrases during the class, the
teacher should expect the students to understand the meaning, to try to use the lexical
item in the appropriate exercises and to be able to use it (at lower levels – to pronounce
it and later – to use it in a sentence or appropriate context). It would be too ambitious
to expect low-level students to use this lexical item immediately in discussions, role-
plays or written tasks because learning new items involve storing them first in our short-

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term memory, and afterwards in our long-term memory 12. Retention in the short-term
memory is not effective if the number of chunks of information exceeds eight, which
suggests that in a given class we should not aim at teaching more than this number.
However, our long-term memory can hold any amount of information. Word frequency
is another factor that affects storage, as the most frequently used items are easier to
retrieve. We can use this information to attempt to facilitate the learning process, by
grouping items of vocabulary in semantic fields, such as topics (e.g. types of fruit) and by
providing learners with adequate memorisation techniques and opportunities to revise.
Since input is essential in foreign language acquisition, recently learnt lexical items (as
well as grammar ones) should increasingly be used in class discussions and other
activities (initially by the teacher) to enable the students to hear and start using them
more frequently and, thus, to adopt them as part of their active lexis. It is only then that
the learners can produce new words spontaneously in a wide range of communicative
activities that require the ‘natural’ use of lexis.

Further reading:
Doff, A., (1988): Teach English – A Training Course for Teachers
Harmer 2001 Harmer, J., (2007a): The Practice of English Language Teaching
Krashen, S.D., (1981): Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning
Lewis, M., Hill, J, (1985): Practical Techniques for Language Teaching
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

12
We do not control this process consciously.
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7 TEACHING SKILLS

One of the main goals of teaching should be developing learners’ language skills
as knowledge of grammar and vocabulary is often not enough to enable successful
communication. If learners have not practised listening, speaking, reading and writing in
a foreign language, they can have difficulties understanding different varieties of the
language or trying to speak or write themselves in spite of the rules and vocabulary
acquired.
Teaching all four language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing should
start as early as possible. However, when working with young learners, teaching reading
and writing should generally be delayed for some time since young children need time
to develop literacy in their mother tongue first and then in a foreign language.
Language skills are often divided into receptive (listening and reading) and
productive (speaking and writing) skills.

7.1 Teaching Listening

People who have learnt a foreign language without the necessary practice in
listening skills know how difficult it can be to understand authentic speech once they are
exposed to it in real-life situations. Most learners complain that foreigners speak too
fast, that they fail to recognise words they know because of the difference in
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pronunciation, or that they have problems understanding someone in a telephone
conversation (without the supporting paralinguistic features) or in situations where
there is a lot of background noise. Most of these problems are considerably lessened if
learners are given enough listening practice in the classroom which prepares them well
for further communication activities outside the classroom. Fortunately, this important
role of listening skills is adequately emphasised in modern approaches to foreign
language teaching and most course-books often contain exercises of this type from the
very beginning.
An important dilemma related to listening skills is what sort of material should
be used in teaching. Authentic materials are often favoured in modern concepts of
teaching, but some methodologists argue that these are not the most useful for low-
level classes. Authentic materials have undisputed advantages since students are
exposed to the natural use of a foreign language as they would be in real
communication. On the other hand, low-level students can understand very little and
the question is how much they can benefit if these are the only materials used.
Therefore, it seems reasonable to use available adapted materials that are adequately
graded with such groups of students and to introduce authentic materials increasingly
as the students make progress. However, some authentic materials can be used even
with low-level students from time to time, but the tasks set should be simpler. Even
beginners, for example, can listen to a TV/radio weather forecast for Europe if the task
they are given is to remember the names of the countries mentioned.
It is important to note that listening can be extensive or intensive. The former is
the kind of listening usually done outside the classroom and for pleasure. Students often
decide themselves to listen to longer ‘pieces’, by watching films, radio and TV
broadcasts and similar. Intensive listening, however, is much shorter, more focused and
done in the classroom for specific purposes.
Another important distinction often made in the analysis of listening practice is
the one between top-down and bottom-up processing. In top-down processing, a
listener gets a general view of the situation and then, if necessary, focuses on particular
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details. In bottom-up processing, the focus on individual words or phrases and their
stringing aids understanding the whole. Both types of listening are important and
subconsciously used in communication and they should both be practised in the
classroom.

7.1.1 Guidelines for practising listening skills

Different kinds of listening practice can be done in the classroom and these
usually involve:
 Identifying the speakers (listening to a conversation between a few participants
to identify who the speakers may be)
 Listening for general understanding (e.g. listening to a radio broadcast and
identifying what the main topic is)
 Listening for specific information (e.g. listening to a weather forecast and finding
out what the weather will be like in South England)
 Listening for detailed information (e.g. listening to a potential employer giving
direction how to find the office for the interview in which every piece of
information is important)
 Interpreting the conversation (being able to see beyond the literal meaning and
identify the relationship and the moods of the participants)
Whatever the listening task is, it should be carefully planned and prepared. Listening
tasks should be adequately challenging for students. If too easy or too difficult, they are
not likely to result in high motivation and good progress. The tasks should also be
realistic or useful in some way.
Before listening, students should be given clear instructions. Simply playing the
tape or CD without giving instructions as to what the students are expected to focus on
can be extremely frustrating. It is, thus, necessary to define the task in advance and give
students questions, charts or drawings to look at before they listen. It is too ambitious
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to expect the students to remember everything that was said. The tasks can demand
listening for specific information or interpreting the conversation, but it must be clear
what students should concentrate on because in natural communication we hardly ever
listen to each and every word people say and often focus on what we are interested in
and on what we find important. When necessary, some vocabulary can be pre-taught to
enable better understanding.
The tasks students should complete during the listening activities commonly
involve the following:
 choosing the correct picture
 following instructions
 choosing the best answer from the ones offered
 deciding who is saying which sentence
 taking down messages, addresses, phone numbers, flight times etc.
 deciding what attitudes speakers have to the topic being discussed
 remembering the order of events and so on
The recorded material should not be too long. Two to five minutes is certainly
enough for a good listening practice. After the tasks are clearly set, the recording should
be played for the first time and comprehension checked. In most cases, it is necessary to
play the recording a few more times. Teachers should not be misguided by correct
answers which can be immediately given by the strongest students, since the point of
the activity is not to get answers right as quickly as possible, but to enable the whole
group of students to practise. Weaker students sometimes need more time, but
considerable progress is made when such students manage to identify and understand
what they are supposed to, regardless of how many times the recording has been
played. When the majority of the group has completed the task successfully, the
listening activity can be finished or it can be followed by different classroom activities
that can be linked to it.

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7.2 Teaching Reading

In traditional teaching, reading used to be the most emphasised language skill

and a crucial activity in the classroom. Language units used to be text-based and after
being presented to the learners, it was commonly required that all the students should
read the text aloud. Such teaching technique was aimed at practising pronunciation and
teaching vocabulary, but since it was overused and its main aims were limited, it failed
to motivate students.
When teaching young learners in Serbia, practising reading skills is often delayed
until they acquire literacy in their mother tongue. The first steps in teaching reading are
then aimed at learning how to read English words since English orthography is
significantly different from Serbian. In this initial stage, adapted materials are preferred
in classroom settings since they present the best selection of graded language units that
should be learnt.
Reading, as well as listening, is a receptive skill and some principles in developing
these skills are pretty much alike. Low-level students can hardly benefit from authentic
resource materials that are far more than one level beyond their knowledge and,
consequently, inappropriate input. Such materials can be used seldom and cautiously
when simple and limited activities are required. Otherwise, adapted materials better
suit the educational purposes since they offer the necessary ‘adequate input’, but they
should be increasingly supplemented by more authentic texts as progress is made.
Reading activities, like listening ones, can also be extensive and intensive.
Extensive reading is often done at home, for pleasure, but students should be advised
on how to do it. When starting to read more in a foreign language, most people usually
have some problems – they often come across unknown words and spend too much
time looking them up in dictionaries or sometimes they know all the words, but fail to
integrate their meanings and understand the whole. Students should therefore be
taught the necessary techniques for extensive reading to make it easier (not to look up

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every unknown word, but one that has appeared for a few times and is already
remembered or one that hinders the understanding of the whole paragraph etc.) and
they should be taught how to read more quickly and, thus, find more pleasure in reading
activities.
Intensive reading, on the other hand, is slower and more focused, and most
often done in the classroom. It usually involves work on both types of information
processing distinguished in listening practice. Top-down reading, similarly to top-down
listening, is more often used in real life and involves reading for a general view of the
text (e.g. reading a newspaper article to get the main idea of the story). Bottom-up
reading is done by focusing on particular words or phrases and, by linking them to one
another, building up the whole picture. It can be quite useful when reading texts that
contain a great number of unknown words.
When intensive reading is done it is very important that the texts are well-
balanced as far as grammar and lexis are concerned. Students should be familiar with
most grammar items in the text if the focus of the reading activity is on cultural aspects
or vocabulary (if the texts are used as an introduction into grammar presentation, then
the vocabulary should be well-known to students, so that they can concentrate on the
grammar).
Apart from silent reading, which is faster and more efficient with advanced
students, at lower levels, students are often expected to read the text aloud, so that
they practise their pronunciation and intonation. It is important that such practice is
done after the students have been exposed to a proper model (the recording of the text
or the teacher’s reading) since most students feel insecure when they have to read
aloud new texts containing unknown words or complicated names. Texts should
generally contain a limited number of new words and phrases students are supposed to
learn and it should be fewer than 8 unknown words per 45 minute class.
Another distinction important to make in reading techniques is the one between
the two types of fast reading learners should master: skim reading and scan reading.

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 Skim reading is fast reading done to identify the key topic and main idea of a
text, (like reading a letter of complaint to a travel agency and identifying the mood of
the writer and the main reasons for their dissatisfaction). Scan reading is done to find
specific pieces of information and details (finding out facts, numbers, names, addresses
etc.)
Although particular details are being looked for, scan reading is also a type of
top-down activity since scan reading requires quick processing of the whole text so that
the key words can be found and the necessary piece of information obtained. Both scan
reading and skim reading should be practised thoroughly in the classroom because
these are the techniques people most commonly employ in real life, when reading some
texts for professional and educational purposes or for their personal interests.

7.2.1 Practising reading in the classroom

Practising reading skills often develops through a few stages13:

 Introduction/lead-in – the first stage which involves getting the learners
interested in the topic, linking the topic to the learners’ personal experience,
discussing the main themes or concentrating on important language the learners
will come across while reading the text
 Pre-reading task – often involves predicting what the text will be about,
considering its title, subtitles or illustrations or reading questions about the text
which should prepare the students for what to focus on
 Reading task – can be done in different ways depending on the type of the text
and the goal of the teacher. Reading tasks can involve:
o skimming ̶ in order to check the predictions made before the reading
activity, to find out the general idea of the text or put the events in the
right order

13
The sequencing of reading activities is based on Scrivener 2005: 187
88
 o scanning – in order to find a particular piece of information in the text
o focusing on the main meaning – in order to take part in a discussion, to
make summaries, or to use the main points in subsequent reading or
speaking activities
o focusing on meaning – in order to interpret finer points in the text,
ambiguities, word-plays etc.
o focusing on individual language items – in order to learn or practise
grammar and vocabulary
 Follow-on task – a closing activity usually involving discussions, writing tasks and
role-plays or linking the topic of the text to personal or common human
experience
Specifically defined, reading tasks often require:
 putting the illustrations of the texts or the paragraphs in the correct order
 giving headlines to each section of the text or matching already given headlines
with the sections
 reinserting sentences previously taken from the text in the right place
 finding the words in the text that mean the same as the words from a given list
 doing multiple-choice and true/false exercises to check comprehension of the
text and so on

When reading is practised in the classroom, the teacher should make sure that
instructions are clear to all students in the group and that all of them are engaged in the
activity. Weaker students often feel embarrassed to admit they fail to understand parts
of the text, so the teacher should pay more attention and give more help to such
students.
It is also important to point out that a reading activity may not involve all the
stages listed above, since it can be done as a lead-in activity that develops into
discussion or writing practice.

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7.3 Teaching Speaking

Speaking is a productive skill and after the first stages, which usually involve
repetition and paraphrasing, it develops gradually and improves enormously as the
learners extend their linguistic and communicative repertoire. Until recently little was
done on learners’ speaking skills. It was generally assumed that speaking should evolve
as learners make progress and have enough opportunity to speak in and outside the
classroom. Recently, however, this view has changed and work on speaking skills is,
consequently, better planned and more efficient.
When speaking practice is done, the focus is on fluency and not on accuracy, as it
is when the grammar is practised, and the teacher should be more tolerant of errors
since a great number of learners have difficulties when trying to use a foreign language
productively even if they know the necessary rules and the relevant vocabulary.
Speaking involves the integration of different types of knowledge learners have
acquired, including knowledge of social and cultural rules that might be important. Since
this is truly a demanding activity, the support of the teacher is extremely important.

7.3.1 Speaking activities in the classroom

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 In organising speaking practice, the teacher has much more freedom than in
organising other types of activities. This freedom, however, imposes a certain amount of
responsibility. There are a few important tasks the teacher should do in order to provide
the conditions for a successful speaking practice:
 Choosing the topic – Students are more likely to engage in the activity if the topic
is interesting, challenging and not too vague. The topic can be introduced after a
short article is read to the students or a recording played or it can be chosen in
line with the students’ interests.
 Organising the class – A speaking activity can be done as a whole class
discussion, pair work or group work and these should be varied. The teacher
should take care that the students are seated so that they can have eye-contact
with other participants.
 Structuring talk ̶ The teacher should be ready to provide some cues if the
response of the students is weak. The conversation is more likely to develop if
the topic or the speaking task is well defined. Vague questions like ‘What do you
think about…:’ are not likely to stimulate a lively discussion. Students should
have a clear idea what particular aspect of the topic they should focus on. The
teacher should make sure that all the students get the chance to participate and
should also take part in the discussion himself in order to keep it interesting (e.g.
by giving an opposite view, which should be disputed). The teacher’s
participation, however, should be reduced to the extent necessary for
structuring talk since this is primarily a learner-centred activity.
 Giving feed-back – Different types of useful feed-back can be given during and
after the activity: encouraging students, helping them to produce an utterance
correctly, showing interest by verbal and non-verbal signals, drawing attention to
common errors and asking for or giving correction after the activity is finished.
Planning a speaking activity is not as easy as it may seem to novice teachers and it
involves a lot more than just choosing a topic and expecting students to speak. The
teacher should get to know the material selected for the topic well and prepare cues.
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Before the instructions are given and the speaking activity is started, it is useful to revise
or extend the vocabulary and phrases students might need in the conversation. The
selected lexis can be written on the board or printed on hand-outs so that the students
can easily have a look at them during the activity.
The teacher should be supervising during the whole activity to help students when
necessary and to remember or, even better, write down interesting utterances that can
be discussed when the activity is finished.

7.4 Teaching Writing

Writing is a productive skill. The attitude to the importance of writing skills has
significantly changed over the past few decades. Most people wrote very little in their
everyday lives twenty or thirty years ago, while nowadays, in the era of text messaging,
e-mails and web forums, there is hardly anyone who does not need writing for such
purposes. Writing e-mails and text messages requires knowledge of particular rules,
abbreviations and lexis aimed at quick and efficient message exchange, commonly used
in this modern means of communication. This sort of writing, however, differs largely
from creative writing or academic writing, which should be developed as the learners
reach advanced levels.
Teaching writing, like teaching any other skill, should be directed to the
communicative purposes of the learners and should prepare them for using this skill
both in e-mails and chat forums and in their further education or business where a more
refined and complex academic style is still required.

7.4.1 Practising writing in the classroom

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 The development of writing skills is a slow and complex process. What makes it
even more difficult in the beginning stages of learning is the lack of correspondence
between sounds and their spelling in English. It normally takes considerable time until
students are able to write freely and creatively.
The initial stages are usually marked by a strong emphasis on accuracy. Writing
practice is usually sequenced, and the common stages are often the following 14:
 Copying – Students copy words from a course-book or from the board to get
used to letter shapes and basic orthographic rules.
 Doing exercises – Students write words, phrases or sentences in controlled tasks,
like grammar exercises, in which there is no creativity and the focus is on
accuracy.
 Guided writing – Students write texts in controlled tasks with great help and
guidance from the teacher, in the form of a given model, useful vocabulary and
phrases or advice and suggestions.
 Process writing – Students have more freedom in choosing the topic and
planning their written assignments, but they exchange their ideas and develop
and organise them by working with peers and getting help from the teacher.
 Creative writing ̶ Students are able to plan, organise and complete their written
assignments without the help of the teacher.
As can be seen above, the first more demanding step in developing creative
writing is the one usually referred to as ‘guided writing’ and it can be done even at lower
stages of learning since it usually involves some sort of paraphrasing, inserting the
beginnings or ends of sentences and paragraphs, finishing a short piece of writing or
producing a similar one. Such tasks do not require much creativity, but raise awareness
of how the text should be organised, how sentences are joined and ordered and how
alternative language items can be used.
The next stage involves more work on how ideas should be expressed and
developed in a written text. Students learn how to sequence their ideas, what sort of
14
The sequencing of writing activities is based on Scrivener 2005:193
93
language may be appropriate for a particular writing style and how to enrich and vary
the lexis used. This stage is often quite difficult for students in Serbia since writing is
generally less used in our educational system than it is in most other countries, and
owing to the lack of experience, students in Serbia need much more practice to improve
their writing skills.
What is essentially important in developing writing skills, apart from good
guidance and much practice, is reading (as a means of providing adequate input and a
good model) as well as the conscious analysis of selected pieces of writing at later stages
of learning.
Finally, it is important to point out that whenever writing tasks are done,
feedback should be given, so that the students can see what their strengths and
weaknesses in this area are. Most teachers simply ‘correct’ written assignments, by
putting symbols which show if a grammar, lexical, structural or any other mistake was
done, but better effects are achieved if clearer feedback is given in the form of written
comments that draw attention to the overall performance of the task. The latter is,
admittedly, time-consuming, but since writing tasks often require a lot of energy from
learners, this effort should be recognised and further ones encouraged by proper
feedback from the teacher.

Further reading:
Doff, A., (1988): Teach English – A Training Course for Teachers
Harmer 2001 Harmer, J., (2007a): The Practice of English Language Teaching
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

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8 LEARNER GROUPS

Although there are some basic principles commonly accepted in foreign

language teaching, much of the practical work done in the classroom depends largely on
the specific learner group, their needs and problems they face.
Groups are rarely homogenous. In state schools, students are grouped by age
and some students are often much stronger or weaker than others. In private language
schools, learners are grouped both by age and by the level of knowledge achieved. Most
commonly, several levels are distinguished: Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate,
Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, and Advanced. It is often assumed that an average
student needs between 100-120 classes to move from one level to the next, but there
are significant individual differences in the progress students make and even when
grouped on the basis of a placement test, their achievement at the end of a school year
can differ greatly. Moreover, children learn more slowly than teenagers and adults and
expecting them to move from one level to the next one so quickly would be too
ambitious.
Teaching is, therefore, strongly determined by the needs and qualities of a
particular learner group and should be adapted to the specific demands of the learners.
Some basic aspects of teaching children, teenagers, adults and mixed-ability classes are
discussed here.

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8.1 Teaching mixed-ability classes

As it has already been pointed out, learner groups are rarely homogenous and
even when they are formed according to the perceived level, some students make
progress more quickly and significant differences can appear during the course.
In state schools, such differences are almost always present because students
are divided into classes on the basis of their age. The syllabus and the work plan can
hardly meet the needs of each learner in the class since they are usually designed to fit
the learning needs of an average student. Most of them, however, do not belong to this
‘average’ group and there are always some students that may find the content of
teaching or activities in the classroom too easy or too difficult.
Fortunately, teaching methodology can overcome the constraints imposed by
the syllabus. Efficient teaching requires responding to the needs of all the students in
the class and there are a number of ways it can be done:
 Group work can be organised so that students are sorted by their level and given
appropriate but different tasks that enable them all to make progress. Weaker
students can be given simpler tasks suitable for their level and pace of learning,
while stronger students can be given tasks that help them extend their
knowledge. Group work is particularly suitable for speaking practice because
weaker students dislike taking part in front of the whole class and feel more able
to contribute in a smaller group.
 Pair work can also be suitable when working with mixed-ability classes. In a very
controlled activity, the strong students can be paired with the weak ones who
may be supported in task completion by a superior colleague. In freer activities,
it is better to pair students according to their level. If a pair discussion is done,
then weaker students feel more confident with peers whose level of competence
matches their own, while stronger students feel more challenged to talk to
equally capable classmates. Pair work should generally be varied and conducted
in different ways, depending on the activity. Teachers should also take into
96
 consideration the relationships between different students and note who works
well with whom.
 Whole class work is usually appropriate when language items are being
presented, and only to a limited extent in practice activities. There are, however,
very motivating ‘mingle’ activities which successfully involve the whole class
talking or interacting with many different members of the class in a short period
of time in order to achieve a task. This means that each student will work with
other students at different levels, experiencing stronger and weaker ways of
communication.
Another suitable way to provide adequate materials for non-average students is
to give the strongest and the weakest ones some extra work during the class or
homework that is appropriately designed to fit their level.
Generally, the teacher should prepare a range of activities fitting different
learner demands, which can be time-consuming, but gives better effects, allowing all
students to benefit by doing appropriate work.
Peer cooperation is also very important for weak students who need more help
both from the teacher and from their peers and it should be initiated and supported
from the very beginning of the course. Stronger students can raise their self-esteem and
establish good relationships by helping weaker ones, while the latter sometimes feel
more comfortable receiving help from their classmates than when getting it from the
teacher.

8.2 Teaching Children

Children nowadays start learning foreign languages quite early, most of them
beginning at the age of 7 when they start a foreign language as a compulsory course in
primary school (in Serbia) and some start even earlier – at the age of 4 or 5. Teaching
English to children is very different to teaching it to adults or teenagers. These

97
enormous and obvious differences require careful considerations regarding the teaching
methodology and the activities conducted.
Firstly, children are less cognitively developed than adults and are not capable of
understanding abstractions. Using metalanguage and abstract definitions are, therefore
pointless and even counter-productive. Adult learners often require and benefit from
formal instruction which makes children bored and produces no effect.
Secondly, children have a shorter concentration span and lose interest more
quickly. If they find the task too difficult or boring, they lose motivation. This is why it is
essentially important for a teacher to make a good lesson plan and to include a number
of short and interesting activities that sustain the attention of young learners. If
concentration flags, the activity should be changed.
Finally, acquisition of the mother tongue is not fully complete by the age of 7 or
8. Children can successfully communicate in their native language, but some of the skills
needed for more complex discourse (such as using pronouns, conjuncts, producing
complex sentences and the like) are still being acquired and practised in the mother
tongue at school age. This inevitably makes the selection of language items in a foreign
language limited for the time being.
On the other hand, children are generally more enthusiastic and lively and less
embarrassed in the classroom, which makes them very active and cooperative learners
as long as they are interested. Their low inhibition and psycho-motor adaptability are
great advantages in acquiring native-like pronunciation, in which they usually succeed
better than older learners.
The employment of communicative activities that prepare students for real-life
communication is strongly emphasised in contemporary trends in foreign language
teaching. However, children rarely use the foreign language outside the classroom and
the question is – what communicative goals should be met in teaching children? Since
their goals are yet to be defined, especially when learning at an early age, the best that
can be done is to choose contents and activities that are appropriate for the children’s
age and socio-cultural experience, and language that will grow with the child, in that,
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although some vocabulary will no longer be needed, most of the language will provide a
useful base for more grown-up purposes. (Cameron 2001: 30). The syllabus for a
children’s course should, therefore, contain a number of songs and chants and,
generally, topics and register that are appropriate for their particular age.
Another constraint when teaching English to children in Serbia is the fact that
pupils are not familiar with the English alphabet up to the age of 8 since they start
learning the Cyrillic alphabet first, when they are 7 years old. This means that reading
and writing should be delayed up to the age of 8 or 9. However, children can be exposed
to coursebooks containing short dialogues where they manage to ‘recognise’ how a
word is spelt or pronounced and which can be applied as a sort of peripheral learning
that does not interfere negatively with literacy development in their native language
and facilitates the upcoming learning to read and write in English.
The activities that are most commonly used when teaching children are the
following:
 Wordplay activities – such as: matching words to pictures, doing anagrams, filling
in missing letters, doing crosswords, memory games, a ‘hangman’ game, puzzles,
word searches and jumbled sentences. There are numerous teachers’ manuals
that contain excellent ideas and a variety of games of this type.
 Listening activities – usually not very demanding: following the instructions
given, drawing funny or crazy pictures according to a dictation, etc.
 Drawing activities – involving simply colouring for younger learners and some
sort of more creative drawing to illustrate the meaning of a text or of particular
words.
 Arts and crafts activities – making class wall displays, mini-projects and other
‘cut-and-stick’ activities related to the topics being worked on.
 Action/movement games – mime games, team competition games, running to
the board (which motivates children enormously), word circle games (throwing
the ball to revise vocabulary sets and similar). Children have tremendous energy

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 and enjoy moving during the class. TPR should generally be used as much as
possible with young beginners.
 Using stories – if a group is small, children can sit on the floor. The teacher
should practise the reading technique and show pictures while reading to get the
students interested.
 Using drama and acting out ̶ puppets, toys and masks can be excellently used in
dialogues and role-plays. Realia15 can be used for acting (e.g. a hat and gloves for
a lady). Even the most boring dialogues can be livened up when read in funny
voices and accompanied by finger puppets.
 Using songs and chants – all children are motivated by songs. Apart from
listening to them and singing them, they can act them out.
 Using computer games – if a computer is available, a number of useful and well-
designed games aimed at learning vocabulary sets, phrases or grammar can be
integrated into a well-balanced lesson plan.
Whenever teaching children, the perspective of the learners should be considered
and all the activities, as well as the resource materials, should be attractive, motivating
and interesting. Although teaching beginner levels is not linguistically demanding,
channeling the enormous energy of young learners and responding to their needs and
expectations is not an easy task at all. This kind of teaching requires a great amount of
energy on the teacher’s part, as well as inventive ideas and frequent ‘on the spot’
decisions when classroom activities do not develop according to the teacher’s plan.

8.3 Teaching teenagers

Unlike teaching children, which is quite specific since the content of teaching
should be relatively limited and the techniques used should be aimed at matching their
interests and their concentration span, teaching teenagers and adults is based on

15
Realia is the term used to denote real-life objects that can be used during the class.
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general principles applied in foreign language teaching and already explained in the
sections dealing with teaching grammar and lexis and developing language skills.
Although young learners can acquire native-like pronunciation more successfully,
teenagers and adults, as was already pointed out, tend to learn more quickly than
children. There are a number of factors contributing to their better achievements in
foreign language learning – their cognitive development is superior, their concentration
span is much longer and their acquisition of the mother tongue is complete. They can,
thus, benefit from a wider range of techniques used in classroom teaching, including, for
example, deductive explanations and extensive reading which cannot be employed
when teaching children.
In spite of these advantages, teaching teenagers and adults is not devoid of
problems and these basically have to do with their attitude to language learning and
affective factors in general.
Teaching teenagers can be extremely rewarding and extremely demanding at the
same time. They tend to be the fastest learners, their memory is excellent, they are
often quite clever, inventive, fast-thinking and focused. They usually have a good sense
of humour and due to recent ‘learning experiences’, have got used to responding to the
demands of the classroom. On the other hand, this is generally a very difficult period in
life when most young people feel deeply insecure and tend to hide it by misbehaving. It
is sometimes useful to have contacts with their parents to understand better the
reasons for lack of motivation or misbehaviour and to be able to respond appropriately.
Admittedly, a great number of teenagers have relatively low motivation for learning,
especially when they feel something is imposed on them. Getting engaged in classroom
activities can be found ‘silly’ or embarrassing and it can be either rejected or done
without personal investment. So, apart from working on the language, which is not so
difficult since teenagers learn really fast, much of the teacher’s job, when having a
teenage class, seems to be aimed at raising the students’ motivation and making them
feel secure and supported in the classroom environment. A few suggestions given below
(Scrivener 2005) can be very useful in creating a better learning atmosphere:
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  ‘Childish’ activities should be avoided with teenagers.
 Students who feel embarrassed to speak in front of the class should be ‘left
alone’ for some time.
 Group tasks should be designed instead of ‘whole class activities’ since the latter
keep fewer students engaged and most of them feel bored.
 Materials should be selected from up-to-date resources students are interested
in.
 Topics for writing and conversation should be chosen according to students’
interests.
 The syllabus and the course-book should not be followed too strictly.
 Learners should be asked how they would adapt the content of teaching.
 It should be explained to learners which activities are essential and which are
optional, and a choice given as to which optional ones should be left out and
replaced by more interesting activities.
 Students should be involved in a longer project that may get them engaged.
 Expectations, requirements and penalties should be explained to the students in
advance.
Although it may seem rather demanding, responding attentively to the interests
and problems of teenage learners, while at the same time maintaining control, leads to
efficient and enjoyable teaching which can prove to be quite rewarding once the
students are motivated and decide to make use of their highly developed learning
capacities.

8.4 Teaching Adults

Most of the problems teachers come across in adult classes are related to
affective factors. Although not so fast and focused as teenagers can be, adult learners

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are also quite superior to children owing to their cognitive development and high native
language competence.
Adults are generally well-behaved and quite responsible in the class, seldom
refusing to do their tasks. Compared with some teenagers, they tend to be even more
motivated, since foreign language learning has not been imposed on them by their
parents or school authorities. The problem is that adult motivation for language learning
is, in most cases, extrinsic and instrumental. A great number of adult students have
chosen to learn a foreign language because they need it to get a job, to get promoted,
they need it for further education or in order not to lose their job. This sort of
motivation is well-known to be weaker and less efficient than intrinsic motivation.
Moreover, adult learners are often more anxious and less likely to take risks in the
classroom. They usually feel ashamed if they make errors in front of their classmates
and try to avoid threatening situations unless they feel ready and confident. This is why
adult learners frequently ask for explanations and why they feel and learn better when
they get them.
Part of being an effective language teacher involves understanding how adults
learn best. Compared to children and teens, adults have special needs and requirements
as learners. It is very important to bear in mind that adults are goal-oriented and
appreciate an educational program that is organised and has clearly defined elements.
Furthermore, adults must see a reason for learning something. Learning has to be
applicable to their work or personal interests and it is sometimes wise to tell them
explicitly how the lesson will be useful to them. Finally, adults need to be shown respect
and encouragement as do all other students.
A factor often underestimated and one which seems to strongly hinder the
learning process in adult classes is that many adult learners frequently come to language
classes quite exhausted after a busy daily schedule and fail to focus and get involved in
classroom activities properly. Since they avoid taking risks and often lose concentration,
fossilization can become one of the main problems a teacher has to deal with.
Here are a few suggestions which might help when teaching adult learners:
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  Activities should be shorter and varied to engage students even when they are
tired.
 Topics should be chosen according to the goals of the particular learner group.
Adults have very clear ideas about what they need a foreign language for and
how they are going to use it, so classroom activities should be directed to these
particular communication goals.
 Deductive explanations can be useful for adult learners and should be given as
often as necessary.
 Students should be encouraged to take part in speaking practice in a relaxed and
non-threatening classroom atmosphere.
 Practising productive skills should be carefully structured and controlled to make
students feel less anxious.
 The teacher should try to create a learning atmosphere in which students’ errors
are not seen as a failure, but as natural part of language acquisition.
Teaching adults is, generally, more practically-oriented than any other kind of
teaching since learners are usually not willing to waste their time on what they see as
‘useless’. Apart from the employment of appropriate techniques, this kind of teaching
requires an attentive response to the learners because adult students, who sometimes
return to classroom long after having finished their regular schooling, need more
encouragement to overcome their psychological barriers which are virtually the biggest
obstacles in their foreign language development.

Further reading:
Cameron, L. (2001): Teaching Language to Young Learners
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

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9 LANGUAGE TESTING

A test is a method of measuring a person’s ability or knowledge in a given area.

In language teaching, it is, therefore, a method of measuring students’ language ability
or knowledge, in other words – their language competence. In classroom language
learning, different kinds of tests are often applied since this is the way that students’
achievements can be assessed and graded objectively, and how their progress and
problems in learning can be identified.
In traditional teaching, tests were not used appropriately and students used to
have quite a negative attitude towards testing. Most misuses are well summarised by
Shohamy (1988):
 Tests were used as punishment (e.g. because no one did the homework).
 Tests were the exclusive instrument for grading.
 Tests did not reflect what was taught.
 Tests were returned with a lack of corrections or explanations.
 Students were not adequately trained to take tests, etc.
Fortunately, the situation has improved in the last few decades and a lot of
attention has been given to creating a more constructive view of language testing. Tests
are used nowadays to provide an opportunity for interaction between the teacher and
the students (Shohamy 1988) and are intended to help students improve their skills.
Modern tests are usually designed to reflect what was taught and satisfy certain
requirements.
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 Tests are, in most cases, composed by teachers, although standardised tests,
devised by language methodologists can be used for particular purposes.

9.1 A Good Test

Language testing should not be confusing or threatening to students and should

be, at the same time, useful to both students and teachers, giving a reliable and true
picture of how successfully language items have been acquired. In order to offer such an
objective and valuable insight into the progress students are making and into potential
problems, a few important criteria should be met and these are, in the first place,
practicality, reliability and validity:
 Practicality – A good test should be practical, which means that it should be
composed with respect to time constraints, financial limitations and ease of
scoring and interpretation. A language test that takes a student 5 hours to
complete or a teacher 5 hours to correct is certainly not a practical one; nor is a
test that requires the use of technical devices that are not available. A practical
test should be designed so that students can do it in a relatively short time and
the teachers can correct it efficiently. It should be prepared and carried out with
respect to the material resources available. In a classroom setting, this usually
means that tests should be done during class-time, corrected in a few days at the
latest and should be designed in line with the school facilities (e.g. an internet-
supported test cannot be done in schools that are not adequately equipped).
 Reliability – A reliable test is one that gives similar results if given to the same or
a matched group of students on two different occasions. It means that if the
same group of students took the same tests within two days (with no instruction
in between) or if they were given a similar test, the results should be consistent.
A few factors are crucial in determining reliability: the types of items and the
length of the total test. The longer the test is, the more reliable it should be. As
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 for the content, the scope of variety for the answers expected should be
restricted. Apart from its content consistency, a reliable test should also be
consistent as far as scoring is concerned, which means that the scoring should be
objective enough to produce the same results even if corrected by different
scorers. If scoring is a matter of subjective assessment, the test is not considered
to be reliable.
 Validity – Validity refers to whether the test really measures what it is supposed
to measure. A valid test of speaking should, therefore, not be designed in a
paper-and-pen format containing items that measure grammar competence
rather than speaking. Two types of validity are crucially important in classroom
testing: content validity and construct validity. Content validity is achieved if a
test adequately samples the content or objectives. Content validity can be
determined observationally if the achievement being measured can be clearly
defined. Practically, it means that a grammar test should consist of items that
clearly require the use of grammar knowledge and that measure learners’
grammar ability. A concept often associated with content validity is – face
validity which is satisfied if the test looks as if it is measuring what it is supposed
to measure (e.g. a written assignment really looks as if it is measuring an ability
to write freely, whereas a ‘multiple choice’ test doesn’t). Construct validity refers
to the degree to which the test is a true reflection of what it means to know a
language. Test questions, for example, that require some sort of general or
particular knowledge, can be answered incorrectly owing to the lack of this
particular knowledge and not owing to an inability to use the foreign language.
Such a test, thus, does not meet the criterion of construct validity.
 Item analysis – This analysis should be done to determine the degree of item
difficulty and item discrimination. Item difficulty refers to the proportion of
correct responses to a test item. Tests aimed at differentiating between learners
should contain items which around 60-80% of the students answer correctly.
Item discrimination, on the other hand, refers to how well the test can help in
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 separating the stronger students from the weaker ones. It is desirable that a test
should have a higher discrimination level, which means that it should be done
better by stronger students.
All these criteria should be considered very important and should be met in order
to achieve a reliable and objective insight into the learners’ level of knowledge, their
achievements and their weaknesses, in other words – in order to achieve the goals a
test is primarily intended for.

9.2 Types of Tests

Tests can have different functions. One and the same test can be used for
diagnosis, placement of learners, for insight into their progress or for experimental
research. However, the most important types of tests often used in state schools or
private language schools can have some particular qualities and precisely defined goals:
 Proficiency tests are intended for measuring general competence in a foreign
language. They are, thus, not supposed to be limited to a particular syllabus or a
single skill. Such tests usually consist of items on grammar, vocabulary, reading
comprehension, oral comprehension and writing, but sometimes, speaking is
tested as well. Typical examples of proficiency tests are TOEFL, FCE, CAE, CPE and
similar comprehensive language tests.
 Diagnostic tests are composed to find out difficulties students have in learning,
to identify gaps in their knowledge and weaknesses in their language skills. Such
tests can be very useful in classroom setting when starting to work with a new
group of students because they enable the teacher to find out which areas of the
foreign language should be given more attention and how the work plan should
be adapted.
 Placement tests are used to place a student in a particular level or class in a
school. They are usually designed as proficiency or diagnostic tests. Such tests
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 include a sampling of material to be covered in the syllabus. The areas usually
tested are grammar and vocabulary, but sometimes students’ receptive or, even,
productive skills may be assessed. Such tests provide an indication of what level
or class is adequately challenging, neither too easy, nor too difficult for a
student.
 Achievement tests are most often done in classroom language teaching since
these tests measure the achievement of the students in relation to the syllabus.
They contain material that is quite similar to that covered within a recent period
of time through lessons and units presented and practised. Achievement tests
should reflect progress (Harmer 2001: 321), not weaknesses and they should,
thus, reinforce learning. If students’ answers are unexpectedly weak, this fact
should be taken into consideration in further lesson planning, but students
should not be discouraged. Such test are usually done at certain intervals (mid-
term or end-term tests), but they can be done as often as teachers feel students’
progress should be checked (when a unit or a selection of teaching material has
been completed).

9.3 Test Construction, Administration and Scoring

The first step in test composition is defining the objectives to be tested, after
which test items and procedures are developed.
Creating a number of items varying in the level of difficulty and procedures
required for their completion leads to more objective insight into the knowledge
attained. The next step involves the selection of items and their arrangement. A test
should generally start with easier items which encourage students and raise their
confidence and it can be continued by interspersing easy and difficult ones.
If a multiple choice test is being composed, it is important to have a greater
number of alternatives (four is recommended), so that the likelihood of getting the right

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answer just by guessing is reduced. It is also important to pay attention that right
answers are not always in the same place and that there are no obvious regularities in
their ordering which can help students guess them.
When a test is being administered, a few conditions should be met. Firstly, the
room in which students are supposed to be doing the test should be comfortable
enough, with enough space and light and, hopefully, no outside noises. If a CD player is
to be used during the test, it should be previously checked, as should the CDs.
Instructions on how to complete the test should be absolutely clear and unambiguous,
so that every student can understand them. If read aloud, the instructions should be
read slowly. Students should be told the time allowed for completion, or preferably, the
beginning and the end time of the test should be written on the board. In modern
language teaching, it is considered that students should be familiar with the values of
test items or test sections. Teachers should take care not to allow speaking or any kind
of misbehaviour during the test in order to enable all students to concentrate on the
tasks.
When scoring the test, the easiest and the most objective procedures should be
applied. Objective scoring is quite easy to achieve when, for example, multiple choice
tests are employed. When an essay is done or speech tested, it is more difficult to
achieve highly objective scores, since the assessment of free writing or free
communication depends largely on subjective criteria regardless of the efforts made to
improve their objectivity. The results of the test should be announced to students as
soon as possible. Apart from grading students on the basis of their test results, teachers
should use these results and analyse them since students’ errors provide a valuable
insight into the problems in their language learning and areas of difficulty that should be
given more attention in further teaching.

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9.4 Test Techniques

There are a number of techniques that can be used in language testing, but the
main distinction is usually made between integrative and discrete point testing
methods.

9.4.1 Integrative Tests

Integrative tests became very popular in the Communicative Approach to

language teaching. The main idea is the following ̶ since communicative competence is
seen as an overall, integrative knowledge of the language involving the interaction of all
language skills, grammar and lexis as well as discourse awareness, it cannot be broken
into pieces and tested partially. According to these principles, the communicative
abilities of a learner should be tested by integrative tests, such as a cloze test and a
dictation.
A cloze test is usually a reading passage (150-300 words long) from which every
nth (between every 5th and every 10th) word has been deleted. Students are supposed to
supply the words that fit into these gaps. Since anything can be tested (a grammar form,
a collocation, etc.), successful completion requires a number of abilities on the part of
the learner: good reading comprehension, knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and
discourse, logical ‘expectations’, etc. This is why this testing technique is thought to
measure overall language proficiency. On the other hand, there are some weaknesses in
a cloze test as well – some words can be easily supplied, but some items are truly more
difficult.
Cloze tests can have different forms. Students can be expected to supply one
exact word or an acceptable word that can fit. The latter is less demanding and
psychologically more convenient. On the other hand, words for deletion can be chosen
randomly (e.g. every 7th word) or selected to meet certain criteria (e.g. lexical items or

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past participle forms that appear in the text) which makes this adapted form of a cloze
test suitable for discrete point testing as well (e.g. grammar tests and others).
Dictation was traditionally considered to be a technique used for identifying
progress and problems in writing. Recently, however, the complexity of this technique
has been rightly recognised. A short passage (100 to 200 words) is usually read to
students a few times (in most cases ̶ three times). The first reading is done at a normal
speed, the second one is slower, to give students time to write down what they hear,
and the third one is usually done at a normal speed again.
This kind of test requires careful listening, efficient short-term memory, good
writing abilities and knowledge of some rules that help students in reconstructing longer
chunks. This is why it is believed, and even confirmed in research, that dictations, along
with cloze tests can be successfully used in integrative testing.
Free writing and speaking, when part of a comprehensive test, are also
integrative testing procedures. They require knowledge of the appropriate vocabulary,
general grammar knowledge, the use of fixed phrases or collocations, an appropriate
speaking/writing style and similar. Testing writing as well as testing speaking can be
designed similarly to practising these skills, but in both cases, the assessment of
students’ abilities is not likely to be as objective as it is in most written tests.

9.4.2 Discrete Point Tests

Discrete point tests have a longer tradition and tend to be used more often in
classroom teaching than integrative tests.
These tests are designed on the assumption that language can be ‘broken’ into
smaller parts and that these components (language skills, grammar and vocabulary
items, etc.) can be tested separately, but when the results are joined – an overall picture
of language competence can be quite valid. Such tests are still largely used since they
offer a number of different techniques, appropriate for frequent achievement testing.

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 A major distinction in discrete point tests is made between the two techniques –
recognition and supply.
Recognition techniques usually require students to recognise, or to choose, the
right answer between two or more answers offered. The most common type of
alternative choice test is one requiring true or false answers, often used in testing
receptive skills (reading comprehension or listening comprehension). The disadvantage
of this technique is that it enables a 50% chance of guessing the right answer. A multiple
choice test offers a correct answer and three ‘distractors’ (wrong answers). This reduces
the chances of guessing the right answer to 25%. Since they are easy to mark, these
tests are quite suitable for most test objectives and often used in testing grammar,
vocabulary, reading comprehension and listening comprehension. However, multiple
choice tests have some weaknesses, too. If not ‘ready-made’, they are quite difficult to
compose, because it takes considerable time to create a number of appropriate
distractors.
Supply techniques require slower test completion and test scoring, but tend to
be very useful since they allow students to give their own answers and not just to
choose between the ones offered. At least, they reduce the chance of guessing the right
answer to a minimum. These tests can have different forms and they can require filling
in the gaps with an appropriate word or form, giving the right answer to the question,
rearranging sentence order, producing a sentence by using the words offered,
transformations, paraphrasing, etc.
Different test techniques are often combined, so that a more objective
assessment can be obtained. When grammar or lexis is tested, multiple choice questions
can be used along with almost all the supply techniques listed above.
As for testing skills, the same techniques can be applied, as presented in the
following summary of Harmer’s work (Harmer 2001: 326):

 Listening:

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 o Identifying which of a number of objects (pictures on the test paper) is
being described
o Identifying which (out of two or three speakers) says what
o Identifying whether speakers are enthusiastic, encouraging, in
disagreement or amused
o Following directions on a map and identifying the correct house or place
o Completing charts with facts and figures from a listening text
 Reading:
o Multiple choice questions to test comprehension of a text
o Matching written descriptions with pictures of the items, or procedures
they describe
o Transferring written information to charts, graphs or maps
o Choosing the best summary of a paragraph or a whole text
o Matching jumbled headings with paragraphs
o Inserting sentences provided by the examiner in the correct place in the
text
 Speaking
o An interviewer questioning a candidate about themselves
o ‘Information gap’ activities where a candidate has to find out information
o ‘Decision-making’ activities (such as showing candidates ten photos of
people and asking them to put them in the order of the best and
worst dressed)
o Using pictures for candidates to compare and contrast, whether they can
both see them or whether (as in many communication games) they must
find similarities and differences without being able to look at each other’s
material
o Role-play activities where candidates perform tasks such as introducing
themselves or phoning a theatre to book tickets

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  Writing:
o Writing compositions and stories
o ‘Transactional letters’ where candidates reply to a job advertisement, or
pen a complaint to a business based on information given in the exam
paper
o Information leaflets about their school or place in their town
o A set of instructions for some common task
o A newspaper article about a recent event

Further reading:
Brown, H.D., (1993): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching
Harmer, J., (2001): The Practice of English Language Teaching

10 ERRORS

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 Up until the 1970s, errors learners made in the process of foreign language
acquisition were treated as a sign of failure in language learning. This attitude
culminated during the era of the Audio-Lingual Approach which insisted on ‘good habit
formation’ and treated errors as potential sources of forming bad language habits.
Correct language production was seen as one of the ultimate goals in language learning,
but it was soon realised that such a goal was too ambitious.
Much attention was later given to errors made in foreign language learning, to
why they occur and to how and when they should be corrected. This resulted in the
development of a new field of contrastive linguistics – error analysis as well as in the
development of new teaching techniques of error correction.

10.1 Error Analysis

All sorts of human learning involve making mistakes. Mistakes and errors are
always made in learning a mother tongue, so it is absolutely natural that they are
present in learning a foreign language as well. In ELT methodology, mistakes and errors
are two technical terms with quite different meanings. A mistake is a random guess or a
‘slip’, in other words ̶ a failure to utilise a known language system correctly. All people
make mistakes in both first and foreign language production. Errors in a foreign
language, on the other hand, are deviations from the adult grammar of a native speaker
and they reflect the language system the learner has built up to that time (Brown 1993:
205).
Since the 1970s, when errors learners made were eventually regarded as
inevitable part of performance development, error analysis has become an important
aspect of SLA/FLA investigation. Pit Corder was among the first linguists to suggest that
better understanding of language learning would come from a more systematic
investigation of learners’ errors (Corder 1967).

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 Both methodologists and teachers have since been increasingly aware of the fact
that language learning is a creative and developmental process of building up a new
language system that becomes gradually closer to the language used by native speakers
through trial-and-error and hypothesis testing. This developing language system or
‘interlanguage’ (Selinker 1972) as it is usually called, is an unstable system that has a
structurally intermediate status between the native language and the foreign language.
Errors learners make in building up a new language system are natural part of this
development. Errors are, therefore, now considered important since they offer a
valuable insight into the development of foreign language acquisition.
Moreover, it was assumed and subsequently confirmed that, regardless of their
mother tongue, most learners make similar types of errors at certain stages of learning
and that there might be a ‘natural route of development’ in foreign language
acquisition. Error analysis developed as a subfield of contrastive linguistics and deals
with examining and classifying the types and sources of errors made in language
learning. This is very important in discovering the regularities in foreign language
acquisition and the problems learners have in this process. The results of error analysis
are nowadays successfully applied in syllabus, course and test design. Although most
teachers are not involved in error analysis for the sake of linguistic research, even a less
detailed analysis of their students’ errors in written tasks, discussions and tests can tell
them much about the development and problems in the process of foreign language
acquisition. This means that apart from correcting their students, teachers should try to
find out which errors most frequently occur and which language items need more
attention in the future.

10.2 Error Correction

The results of error analysis are quite useful in teacher training, but what most
teachers have to do in their every-day jobs is to deal with the inevitable errors their

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students make and it is not always easy. Although the occurrence of errors is natural in
foreign language acquisition, correcting them is also an important aspect of foreign
language teaching since proper feedback from the teacher is essential in improving the
‘interlanguage’ of the learners. Otherwise, fossilization (the permanent incorporation of
incorrect linguistic forms) would certainly take place, leading to poor linguistic and,
consequently, poor communicative competence.
What makes things difficult is that adequate feedback is not always only a matter
of linguistic factors, but psychological ones as well. The first dilemma most teachers
have is whether to correct their students every time they make an error or not. Another,
very important, one is whether to correct them immediately when they make an error,
later when the task is finished, at the end of the lesson or later during the course.
The answers to these questions depend very much on the aim of the task in the
first place, and the type of the lesson. If the focus of the task is on accuracy, errors
should preferably be corrected immediately as otherwise students may fail to realise
that the language they produce is not correct. However, if the focus of the task is on
fluency (e.g. speaking practice,), a prompt correction is more likely to hinder the flow of
communication and it is better to work on errors later when the task is finished. A brief
and unobtrusive correction is, however, useful even when fluency is being worked on if
the amount and type of errors are likely to affect communication seriously.
In most traditional teaching, correction was done exclusively by the teacher, who
immediately provided a correct language item after an incorrect one was observed.
Contemporary teaching methods suggest different treatment of errors depending on
the type of activity.
Written assignments and tests are generally corrected easily. Correcting tests
usually involves using graphic symbols to show if the items are correct or incorrect, or
additionally, writing a correct answer where an error was made. Correcting
compositions and essays, on the other hand, can be much more demanding. Most
teachers usually correct errors (spelling, tense, word order, etc.) by putting symbols at
the places where an error was made in writing and give brief comments on the whole
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assignment at the end (such as: well done, but you could have organised it better; try not
to use the same adjectives so often, etc.). Some teachers, however, prefer to give more
elaborate feedback consisting of comments related to almost each sentence of the
written assignment, which is certainly more helpful, but more time-consuming as well.
As for activities done orally, error correction is often staged and involves:
 the indication that an error has been made
 the correction of that error
Indicating that an error has been made invites the learner or the peers to think
about the language item and do the correction, giving them a more active role in the
process of learning. The teacher can indicate that an error has been made in many
different ways (and these should be varied), for example by:
o saying that there is an error
o using facial expressions (frowning, raising eye-brows, etc.)
o using ‘finger’ techniques (like in the Silent Way) to show which word in the
sentence is wrong, or
o drawing circles on the board, marking the third one, for example, to show that
the third word in the sentence is wrong
o writing the sentence on the board, asking for analysis or correction
o repeating the sentence up to an error or echoing it with a changed intonation or
stress, etc.
After an error has been identified, it can be corrected by the student who made
it, by another student (if they work in pairs or groups), by somebody in the class or by
the teacher himself. Asking the whole group of students to correct an error made by an
individual can be more effective (faster), but it is not recommended as a common
technique since some students may feel quite embarrassed and inferior when corrected
seemingly by the whole class.
As mentioned before, an error can be corrected immediately or later. If speaking
is being practised, a good idea is to write down the errors students make and give

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comments and explanations later when the task is finished (preferably without pointing
out who exactly made a particular error). Interrupting students while they speak may
make them feel more inhibited and less willing to take risks and participate. Another
option teachers have is to record the speaking activity and analyse it together with the
students later.
After the speaking activity, the teacher can even choose not to correct certain
errors, for example those that students make when they try to use the language items
that have not been practised yet, since they will be doing them later in the course.
On the other hand, certain activities, such as reading, answering the teacher’s
questions, practicing vocabulary or grammar orally and some other whole-class
activities may require immediate correction. The teacher can do it in a number of
different ways, choosing to:
o indicate that an error has been made (in the ways already mentioned),
expecting the student to self-correct or asking some other student to help
o ask helpful questions leading the student to correct himself/herself
o repeat the phrase or sentence correctly to unobtrusively give a model of how
the language item should be used (e.g. the student says: I writed a letter
yesterday, and the teacher repeats almost the whole sentence, emphasising
the verb write, used correctly, but going on with communication: Oh, you
wrote a letter yesterday. Nice. Was it a letter to a friend?)
o say the correct word or phrase, expecting the student to repeat it (e.g. when
a student, reading a short extract pronounces a word in a wrong way, the
teacher immediately corrects and insists that the student repeats it correctly)
o stop the activity in order to provide a more elaborate explanation (in the
case where most students are likely not to have mastered this language
item), etc.
To conclude, it is important to point out that correcting students’ errors, no
matter which way is chosen, should be unobtrusive and mild since, otherwise, it is quite

120
likely to be counterproductive, making students feel embarrassed and inhibited and,
thus, unable to focus on the language and to work on correction and improvement.

Further reading:
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching

11 THE TEACHER

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 After realising how complex foreign language acquisition is and what factors
affect this process, novice teachers may feel overwhelmed and concerned as to whether
they will be able to do the job successfully.
In order to lessen the stress, it is good to remember that a foreign language can
be learnt even without a teacher. In a classroom environment, however, it is learnt
faster and more easily, with good guidance and supervision provided by the teacher.
Good teaching, on the other hand, does not necessarily result in efficient
learning since the latter demands a great deal of attention and energy from the learner.
No matter how well-prepared and methodologically well-done classes may be, some
students (especially teenagers) can sometimes show little interest, little participation
and little attention.
Since even excellent teaching may fail to lead to successful learning, the logical
question is – what is the role of the teacher then? The answer is very simple – to enable
the best possible conditions for learning.
Traditionally, teachers used to have a dominant role in the classroom, being the
most active persons during the class, talking for most of the time, giving directions,
orders, criticising, correcting, and trying to transfer their knowledge through lengthy
explanations. Learners were usually expected to concentrate, write notes, follow
instructions or answer questions and find hidden key points in elaborate presentations,
thus absorbing the knowledge to be acquired. This type of teaching did not offer the
best conditions for learning. There was little interaction and communication was
practised insufficiently. Moreover, there were few opportunities for individuals to
express themselves and to take part in activities that suited their individual learning
styles. The dominance of the teacher often resulted in low motivation and little
engagement from students.
Modern concepts of teaching require a different role for the teacher, but the
question is whether a good knowledge of contemporary teaching techniques is enough
or is there something else that makes ‘a good teacher’. Quoting an American
psychologist Carl Rogers, Scrivener (2005) emphasises that there are three crucial
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teacher characteristics that help in creating a good learning environment and these are:
respect, empathy and authenticity.
Respect is defined as a positive and non-judgmental regard for other persons.
Teachers who show respect for their students are more likely to create the conditions
for successful cooperation and communication which are necessary in FLA.
Empathy is the ability to see the things from other people’s perspectives, which
is extremely important in predicting difficulties in learning and in planning the best
strategies for presentation and practice. Being unaware of how your students may
understand particular learning material and what problems they might have with it,
often leads to inefficient teaching.
Authenticity, in this respect, means being oneself, showing your true personality
to your students, without hiding behind job titles and ‘protective masks’.
These three qualities are all, so-to-say, ‘personality factors’ required for good
teaching. Unfortunately, there are no techniques at teacher training courses that can
instantly improve them. People either have respect for others or not. Personal
development is, thus, essential in the teacher’s job since a lack of confidence, a burden
of personal problems and inability to create successful relationships with other people
can seriously affect the process of learning even if the best teaching techniques are
applied.
As well as working on personal development that aids a positive and supportive
attitude in the classroom, good teachers always keep on working on their professional
development as well. This is often achieved by reading appropriate books and manuals
or attending professional meetings that can provide interesting resource materials and
useful ideas for experimenting with various teaching techniques. Teachers should also
investigate problems their students have in learning, examine numerous coursebooks
and practice-books and exchange experiences and ideas with colleagues. Above all –
language teachers should read a lot. Once methodology is mastered, it should be
gradually and constantly improved and ‘updated’ since progress in this branch of
applied linguistics is made from day to day.
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 Most of the teacher’s work and preparation is ‘behind the scenes’ and this is why
the time and energy invested in preparation are generally unrecognised and
underestimated.

11.1 Classroom management

Apart from having adequate personality features and appropriate education and
training, teachers should also pay attention to a number of practical things commonly
regarded as classroom management, essential in creating the best conditions for
learning. Classroom management usually involves the following:
 grouping students and arranging seating
 setting up and sequencing activities
 giving clear instruction and monitoring the students’ work
 timing and bringing activities to an end
 establishing authority if necessary
 maintaining discipline and dealing with unexpected situations
 gathering and holding attention
 using the board clearly
 using other teaching aids
 speaking clearly at an appropriate volume and speed
 grading the complexity of language items
 paying attention evenly to all the students
 listening to their students attentively
Unfortunately, classroom management techniques cannot be mastered in
advance since there are no instructions that are universally applicable in every situation.
Most of the decisions made during the class depend largely on the atmosphere in the
classroom, the group of students the teacher is working with, the type and aim of the
activity being done and many other factors. What might be a good solution at one point
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may turn to be totally wrong some other time. Good classroom management is often
the result of being attentive and understanding what is going on in the classroom,
thinking of options that are available in that particular situation and choosing the option
that is likely to give the best effects.
To avoid such vague pieces of advice, it is good to give an appropriate example.
If you start a speaking activity and most of your students seem uninterested and start
talking among themselves in their mother tongue, there are a few decisions you can
make. You can try to change the topic or the activity itself or to talk to your students to
see if they have problems in carrying out the task and consequently misbehave or if they
are not interested in the topic. You can get involved in the activity yourself in order to
re-attract their attention and elicit talk or, even, stop the activity and try a more
demanding one in order to punish them (which is, naturally, not recommended). You
can shout ‘stop talking’ and repeat your instructions or use a ‘silence message’ standing
in the middle of the classroom thus attracting their attention and reminding them what
they are supposed to do. You can do something else… What is the best option depends
on the factors already discussed, but most teachers learn to ‘feel’ what the best solution
is in a particular situation after they get some experience in the classroom.
Becoming a good teacher, therefore, requires a great deal of personal and
professional development, and a lot of experience, but this does not suggest that young
teachers fail to do their job properly. On the contrary, the energy and enthusiasm they
may invest as well as their age, a great advantage in understanding their students and
creating a better relationship with them, can make them extremely successful even at
the beginning of their career. What certainly improves as time goes by and as the
teacher makes progress in many respects is that everything seems much easier and less
demanding than it did in the first few months of teaching practice.

11.2 Novice teachers

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 The first classes held are often stressful for most students on teacher-training
courses. Most young people feel quite nervous since they have to do a new thing for the
first time in their lives and they still do not know if they are able to do it well. Moreover,
the classes have to be held in front of many (mostly unknown) students and in front of
their trainers, who check if everything is working according to the plan and if everything
is methodologically correct. This certainly increases the anxiety and this is why most first
classes are not as successful as those that will follow will be. Observation of a great
number of classes has shown that there are some common mistakes students tend to
make when teaching for the first time and these are listed below:
 Grammar errors – Most students on teacher-training courses, even those whose
linguistic competence is really high, make errors in the use of articles, indirect
speech and sequence of tenses. This is not unusual since speaking a foreign
language fluently and correctly is often quite difficult when under stress (and
teaching for the first time is always a sort of a stressful situation). However,
providing a good language model for learners is essentially important and
novice teachers should make an effort to feel relaxed and ‘monitor’ their fluent
speech at the same time.
 Transferring their own experience to the classroom – Unfortunately, a great
number of novice teachers in Serbia were exposed to the kind of teaching that is
quite similar to the Grammar-Translation Method and consisted of reading a
text, translating the unknown words and answering the questions. In spite of
the instructions they get and books they have read, such aspiring teachers often
plan the classes as their teachers in primary school used to do. It is important to
remember that language teaching methodology has changed considerably and
that new techniques should be adopted to create a better atmosphere and get
better results in the classroom.
 Giving explanations that are not clear enough – Some novice teachers feel that
certain language items they should explain are ‘quite easy’ since they mastered
them a long time ago. The students’ point of view can be significantly different
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 and the explanations should be appropriate and clear even to the weakest
students in the class. The important pieces of information should be logically
sequenced and preferably written on the board clearly to provide the visual
input, essential for some of the students.
 Giving instructions that are not clear enough – ‘Do exercise 6’ is not a useful
instruction since some students may not understand what they are supposed to
do even if the instructions are written in the coursebook or practice book. They
are generally not interested in reading instructions since they find them boring.
Teachers should, therefore, not ask their students to read the instructions aloud
to the class, but they should give the instructions themselves and, hopefully, do
the first example of the exercise to show the class how to continue.
 Using a limited number of techniques when explaining new vocabulary – Most
novice teachers find it hard to use different techniques in explaining new lexis
and usually stick to the one they feel most comfortable with. Paraphrasing,
using synonyms, drawing and other techniques should be varied. Another
mistake often made is trying to avoid translation at all costs even when it is
necessary and appropriate.
 Not using the board adequately – Some trainee teachers fail to write unknown
words or other language items on the board, thinking that it is enough to
pronounce them or that the class will be ‘wasting too much time’ while copying
them, but successful learning is achieved when both visual and auditory stimuli
are provided. A number of students fail to learn a new piece of information
unless they write it down, so all new language items should be clearly written on
the board.
 Not repeating new language items during the class – New words, expressions or
rules can easily be forgotten if they are heard only once during the class. New
language items should be repeated from time to time in different types of
activities both by students and by the teacher.

127
  Not correcting students or correcting them inappropriately – Trainee teachers
often hesitate to correct students for fear of offending them personally.
Alternatively, they correct errors (usually quickly and silently) without asking
students to repeat the piece of language that was used wrongly in an
appropriate way. The teacher should check if the student has understood the
correction and if he or she is subsequently able to use the language item
appropriately. There are numerous unobtrusive ways of correcting students’
errors and they should be varied.
 Not moving around the classroom – Trainees who feel a bit nervous during the
class often stand in one place or sit at their desk all the time. The teacher should
move around the classroom in order to be closer to all the students and help
them with appropriate feedback when necessary. This is also the way to check
students’ writing during the class and to control discipline.
 Being too tense and nervous – Teaching is more likely to be successful if the
teacher is relaxed, engaged and really interested in the topic. Communication is
the ultimate goal of teaching a foreign language and it should be promoted in
the classroom. Looking at the clock all the time and interrupting students
because ‘there are more exercises to be done’ is not a way of creating good
learning conditions. When students get motivated and eager to talk, the
teacher should show interest in the activity as well.
 Wearing inappropriate clothes – Casual clothes are absolutely acceptable, but
teachers should generally be dressed decently. Some young people tend to
forget what it means and come to the classroom as if they were going to a night
club.
Hopefully, this list of common mistakes will not discourage students on teacher
training courses since it is given here as a final suggestion of ‘what not to do’ after
numerous pieces of advice on ‘what to do’ in the classroom to enable good conditions
for learning.

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 And, to conclude - to enable the students truly interested in teaching to learn
more about the topics presented here, a list of most useful books suggested for further
reading is given below:

Brown, H.D., (1987): Principles of Language Learning and Teaching – This book provides
a comprehensive up-to-date analysis of theories, research and practice in foreign and
second language learning.
Celce-Murcia, M., ed. (1991): Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language ̶ This
edition gives a selection of texts written by 36 recognised linguists and methodologists
who offer a variety of perspectives showing future language teachers which methods,
materials and resources can be used in the classroom.
Harmer, J., (2007): The Practice of English Language Teaching – This book is a practical
guide for teachers at an early stage in their careers providing useful ideas for teaching
language skills, grammar, vocabulary and all other aspects of classroom language
teaching.
Krashen, S.D., (1981): Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning ̶
This book examines the difference between foreign/second language acquisition and
foreign/second language learning and explains the theory of language acquisition
designed by the author.
Krashen, S.D., (1987): Principles and Practice on Second Language Acquisition ̶ This
book examines how the theories of second language acquisition can be applied to
teaching methods and materials to enable successful communication.
Larsen-Freeman, D., (1986): Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching ̶ This
book provides an excellent and detailed overview of the most important methods that
have marked the development of foreign language teaching.
Lewis, M., Hill, J, (1985): Practical Techniques for Language Teaching ̶ This book is a
basic teacher training handbook for less experienced teachers containing immediately
useful and practical information.

129
Scrivener, J., (2005): Learning Teaching ̶ This book explains the basic principles of
teaching foreign languages, shows how lessons, activities and courses are planned and
how contemporary techniques can be employed in the classroom

12 RESOURCE MATERIALS

130
 This last chapter of the book presents some types of exercises and activities
commonly used in the classroom. As it was pointed out in Chapter 5, teaching a foreign
language nowadays is considerably facilitated with the use of various resource
materials. Although modern coursebooks are excellently designed and often contain
versatile activities aimed at a balanced foreign language acquisition, additional
resources are usually needed to meet the needs of a particular learner group with their
specific problems in learning or their interests. Such supplementary materials should
carefully be selected with respect to the age and the perceived level of the students. It is
equally important that they should be well-matched to the preferred learning styles of
the students and their personal interests.

This chapter is too short to present all types of exercises and activities that can be
used in the classroom since teaching techniques are constantly changing, but it shows
some types of grammar and vocabulary exercises as well as the kind of activities aimed
at developing reading, writing, listening and speaking that are most commonly used in
classroom teaching now. It also provides a few examples of different kinds of tests and a
lesson plan and games for young learners.

12.1 Grammar exercises

 A grammar drill (in which the focus is on manipulating the form or the structure
of the language):

SLIKA 1

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  Grammar games (such as crosswords or a grid game), particularly useful when
teaching young learners:

o Crosswords:

SLIKA 2

o A grid game:

SLIKA 3

 ‘Prompt’ exercises (in which students form sentences following the instruction and the
prompt given):

SLIKA 4

 ‘Fill-in-the-gaps’ exercises (in which students supply the suitable form of grammar item
either in isolated sentences or in a context):

SLIKA 5, 6

 Communication exercises (in which students listen to a story and correct the
wrong information given and use the grammar item that has been practised):
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 SLIKA 7

12.2 Vocabulary exercises

 Matching words to pictures:

SLIKA 8

 Grouping words:

SLIKA 9

 Making compounds:

SLIKA 10

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  Looking for the definition of a word and using the right word in an appropriate
context:

SLIKA 11,12

12.3 Reading

 Basic reading for detail (for young learners, followed with a comprehension check in
the form of drawing):

SLIKA 13

 Skim reading combined with reading for detail:

SLIKA 14

 Scan reading and comprehension check:

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 SLIKA 15

12.4 Writing

 Copying or inserting letters to write a word:

SLIKA 16

 ‘Fill-in-the-gaps’ to complete sentences:

SLIKA 17

 Guided writing:

SLIKA 18

 Creative writing:

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 SLIKA 19

12.5 Listening

SLIKA 20

SLIKA 21

SLIKA 22

12.6 Speaking practice

 Pair work:

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 SLIKA 23

 Pair work (making decisions) followed by group work (discussion and

comparison):

SLIKA 24

 Pair work (an interview):

SLIKA 25

12.7 Tests

 An extract from a placement test starting with easy grammar items and gradually
continuing with more complex ones:

SLIKA 26:

 A diagnostic test:

1. ……………..English? c) that are

a) He is d) that is
b) She
c) Is
d) Is he 3. There are …………. people in the street.
a) a
b) any
2. This is Mr. Smith and …………… his sons. c) some
a) those are d) the
b) these
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4. This is…….. girlfriend. a) is speak
a) of her b) speaking
b) hers c) speak
c) his d) speaks
d) to him

8. ‘What…………….?’ ‘He’s watching TV.’

5. ……………. milk in the fridge? a) does he do
a) Is it some b) he is doing
b) There is any c) does he
c) Is there any d) is he doing
d) There is some

9. She………….. like sandwiches.

a) don’t
b) not
c) doesn’t
d) is not
6. ‘Where’s John?’ ‘He ……………in the
garden’
a) sit 10. ‘Are John and Mary coming to the party?’
b) sits ‘No,………..’
c) is sitting a) they don’t come
d) sitting b) they not coming
c) they aren’t
d) they don’t
7. Paolo …………………French and English.

SLIKA 27

 A proficiency test (an extract from a FC reading test):

SLIKA 28

 An integrative (close) test:

138
 SLIKA 29:
Read the text carefully and then decide on the best word to write in each gap. Only put one word in each gap.

The Atmosphere of (1.) .

Would you like to (2.) an astronaut? To do this, you must travel at least 50 miles (80 kilometres) above

the surface of the earth. But even after you have done that you are still (3.) earth's atmosphere. Indeed,
there are at least 300 miles of air still between you and the true vacuum of space.

Most of what we think of as our atmosphere is actually the troposphere, that part of the atmosphere closest to earth.
This is where most of our weather happens, and it is the only part of the atmosphere which has enough oxygen and

warmth for humans to survive. (4.) part of the atmosphere is about ten miles thick at the equator and

slightly half that height at the (5.) .

(6.) the troposphere is the stratosphere, which you have probably (7.) if you have travelled on
an international jet liner. But there is another kind of 'jet' at this altitude. Huge rivers of air called 'jet streams' (8.)

through the stratosphere, and the stratosphere contains the ozone layer which filters harmful ultraviolet

rays which could (9.) make life on earth extinct. Above the stratosphere is the mesosphere, and above that

the ionosphere, which is important for radio communications as signals can be (10.) off the ionosphere to

different (11.) of the world.

Many people think that the atmosphere is mostly oxygen, (12.) that is what we breathe. But in (13.)

oxygen makes up only about 21% of the atmosphere, and carbon dioxide, which we breathe out, makes
up less than 1%. Over three quarters of the atmosphere is nitrogen, which was expelled from inside the planet while

it was still very volcanically (14.) . We have a lot of nitrogen in our bodies, but we do not get it (15.)

from the atmosphere. Instead we get our nitrogen from plants which we eat.

12.8 A lesson plan and games for young learners

 A two-page lesson for 4-5 year-olds:

SLIKA 30
139
  The lesson plan (taken from the accompanying teacher’s book):

SLIKA 31

 An example of additional practice prepared for the strongest and the fastest
students in mixed-ability classes:

SLIKA 32

 Four examples of popular games (suitable for young learners):

SLIKA 33
SLIKA 34
SLIKA 35
SLIKA 36

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APPENDIX 1

LEARNING STRATEGIES
METACOGNITIVE STRATEGIES
Advance Organisers Making a general, but comprehensive preview
of the organising concept or principle in an
anticipated learning activity

Directed Attention Deciding in advance to attend in general to a

learning task and to ignore irrelevant distracters

Selective Attention Deciding in advance to attend to specific aspects

of language input or situational details that will
cue the retention of language input

Self -Management Understanding the conditions that help one

learn and arranging for the presence of these
conditions

Functional Planning Planning for and rehearsing linguistic

components necessary to carry out an upcoming
language task

Self-Monitoring Correcting one’s speech for accuracy in

pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, or for
appropriateness related to the

141
 setting or to the people who are present

Delayed Production Consciously deciding to postpone speaking in

order to learn initially through listening
comprehension

Self-Evaluation Checking the outcome of one’s own measure of

completeness and accuracy

COGNITIVE STRATEGIES
Repetition Imitating a language model including overt practice and
silent rehearsal

Resourcing Using target language reference materials

Translation Using the first language as a base for understanding

and/or producing the second language

Grouping Reordering or reclassifying, and perhaps labelling the

material to be learned based on common attributes

Note Taking Writing down the main idea, important points, outline,
or summary of information presented orally or in
writing

Deduction Consciously applying rules to produce or understand

the second language

Recombination Constructing a meaningful sentence or larger language

sequence by combining known elements in a new way

Imagery Relating new information to visual concepts in memory

via familiar, easily retrievable visualisations, phrases or
locations

Auditory Retention of the sound or a similar sound for a word,

142
Representation phrase or longer language sequence

Keyword Remembering a new word in a second language by (1)

identifying a familiar word in the first language that
sounds like or otherwise resembles the new word and
(2) generating easily recalled images of some
relationship between the new word and the familiar
word

Contextualisation Placing a word or phrase in a meaningful language

sequence

Elaboration Relating new information to other concepts in memory

Transfer Using previously acquired linguistic and/or conceptual

knowledge to facilitate a new language learning task

Interferencing Using available information to guess meanings of new

items, predict outcomes or fill in missing information

SOCIO-AFFECTIVE STRATEGIES

Cooperation Working with one or more peers to obtain

feedback, pool information or model
language activity

Question for Clarification Asking a teacher or other native speaker for

repetition, paraphrasing, explanation
and/or examples

143
COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
PARAPHRASE

Approximation Use of a single target language vocabulary

item or structure, which the learner knows
is not correct, but which shares enough
semantic features in common with the
desired item to satisfy the speaker. (e.g.
pipe for water pipe)

Word Coinage The learner makes up a new word in order

to communicate a desired concept (e.g.
airball for balloon)

Circumlocution The learner describes the characteristics or

elements of the object or action instead of
using the appropriate target language item
or structure

BORROWING

Literal Translation The learner translates word for word from

the native language

Language Switch The learner uses the native language term

without bothering to translate

APPEAL FOR The learner asks for the correct term

(‘What is this?’)
ASSISTANCE

MIME The learner uses non-verbal strategies in

144
 place of a lexical item or action

AVOIDANCE

Topic Avoidance The learner simply tries not to talk about

concepts for which the target language
item or structure is not known

Message Abandonment The learner begins to talk about the

concept but is unable to continue and
stops in mid- utterance

145
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