Didactics Introduction

General and Subject Didactics

DIDACTICS: part of the pedagogy that study the techniques (practice) and methods (theory) of teaching and
learning. Didactics research tries to explain teaching and how it affects the individual’s thinking and memory
(learning).
The relationship between subject didactics and general didactics is reciprocal by nature, not hierarchical, both
deal with the same problems, their differences lay in the possibility of generalising their solutions and decisions.
This relation is based on equality and constructive co-operation.
The role of SD is independent with its own contributions to the common area of education and the subject,
while GD aims at as comprehensive model as possible. SDs’ model may be made in more detail. Sd has a higher
specification it is designed and applied in certain types of schools or educational institutions, it is connected to
specific subject or subject area, the Ss and the content are in focus. “The core of SD lies in the T’s relation to
the relation between the S and the content (didactic triangle)”. (Kansanen&Meri).
SD is very close to the concepts of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (knowledge to make a subject
comprehensible to others). T’s knowledge of: how subject knowledge should be presented in order to help Ss to
understand the subject, and the Ss’ performances and difficulties. Different characterisation of education allows
different classroom considerations. Every T has didactics on his/her own. T’s understanding of the components
of language determines to a large extent how you teach a language. Theories can help but they cannot remove
from the teacher a personal responsibility to make educational decisions and the ability to see, interpret and
evaluate classroom situations is crucial to the quality of teaching.
The curriculum restricts the degree of freedom to act based on the context in the society, guiding the
instructional process according to the aims and goals stated in order to achieve them. Most of the outcomes are
learning results but teaching doesn’t mean learning. SD depends on how the curriculum is written.
Teaching-Studying-Learning process is seen in the didact triangle. When T-Ss relation is seen as a pedagogical
one it brings with it certain meanings. This is asymmetrical, the T has something the S has not yet. T is able to
control or guide/help.

Learning:
1. Is acquisition or “getting”.
2. Is retention of information or skill.
3. Implies storage systems, memory cognitive organization
4. Involves active, conscious focus.
5. Is relatively permanent but subject to forgetting.
6. Is a change in behaviour.
7. Is the result of reinforced practice
Teaching: showing or helping someone, giving instructions, guiding, providing with knowledge, causing to know
or understand, facilitating.
Your understanding of how the learners learn will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style,
your approach, methods and classroom techniques. An extended definition -or theory- of teaching will spell
governing principles for choosing certain methods and techniques.
Language:
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of
conventionalized sings, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings.
Pinker's:vLanguage is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious
effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in
every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently.
Ron Scollon: Language is a multiple, complex and kaleidoscopic phenomenon.
Possible definitions of language:
1. Language is systematic
2. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols
3. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may also be visual
4. The symbols have conventionalized meanings to which they refer
5. Language is used for communication
6. Language operates in a speech community or culture
7. Language is essentially human, although possibly not limited for humans
8. Language is acquired by all people in much the same way, language and learning both have universal
characteristics
FLA (First Language Acquisition)

40’ 50’ 60’ 70’ 80’ to present

Behaviourist perspective
Best known proponent: Skinner. It was defined by its rigorous application of scientific observations of human
languages. Only publicly observable responses could be subject to investigation, data from the mind was
ignored. Linguistics’ task was to describe human languages and identify the structural characteristics of those
languages. When children imitate the language produced by those around them, their attempts to reproduce
what they heard received positive reinforcement (praise or just successful communication). Encouraged by their
environment, children would continue to imitate and practice these sounds and patterns until they formed habits
of correct language use. The quantity and quality of the language the child hears (input) and the consistence of
the reinforcement offered by others in the environment, would shape the child’s language behaviour.
Environment is the source of everything the child needs to learn
Imitation: word-by-word, repetition of all or part of someone else’s utterance.
Practice: repetitive manipulation of form.
Effective language: correct responses to stimuli.
Reinforcement: behaviour is controlled by its consequences.
+ consequences, the behaviour is maintained and increased in strength and frequency.
– consequences or lack of response, the behaviour is weakened and eventually extinguished.
Children imitate selectively, it is an internal process not related to the environment. They repeat what they want
in order to practice a certain feature which caught their attention or have just begun to understand.
Classical behaviourism was not a satisfactory explanation for the acquisition of the more complex grammar.

Nativist perspective
Most influential figure: Chomsky.
All human languages are fundamentally innate and that the same universal principles underlie all of them. He
argued that children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops in the child is just the
same way that other biological functions develop. For Chomsky environment makes only a basic contribution.
He concluded that children’s minds are not blanks to be filled by imitating language they hear in the
environment. Children are born with a specific innate ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a
language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to.
Chomsky, claimed the existence of innate properties of language to explain the child’s mastery of a native
language in such a short time. This knowledge is embodied in a “little black box” of sorts LAD (Language
Acquisition Device).
Mc Neill described 4 properties:
1. ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds.
2. ability to organize linguistic data into various classes that can later be refined.
3. knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is possible and that other kinds are not.
4. ability to engage in constant evaluation of the developing linguistic system so as to construct the simplest out
of the available linguistic input.
More recently, researchers continued the line of inquiry focused on Universal grammar. This innate endowment
was seen as a sort of template, containing the principles that are universal to all human languages. It would
prevent the child from pursuing all sorts of wrong hypotheses about how language systems might work. It was
an attempt to discover what bring to the language acquisition process regardless of environmental stimuli.
Critical Period Hypothesis: Animals, including humans, are genetically programmed to acquire certain kinds of
knowledge and skills at specific times in life. Beyond those critical periods it is either difficult or impossible
acquire those abilities.
To sum up, we see freedom to explore the unseen, unobservable, underlying, abstract linguistic structures being
developed in the child.

Functional perspective
Learning from inside and out:
Language acquisition in one example of the human child’s remarkable ability to learn from experience and they
see no need to assume that there are specific brain structures devoted to language acquisition. They hypothesize
that what children need to know is essentially available in the language they a re exposed to as they hear it used
in thousands of hours of interactions with the people and objects around them. Hence, more importance to the
environment.
Piaget & Vygotsky.
Piaget: He traced the development of their cognitive understanding of such things as object permanence
(knowing that things hidden from sight are still there) the stability of quantities regardless of changes in their
appearance (the amount is the same although it is displayed in different way), and logical inferencing (figuring
out which properties of a set of tods cause some tods to sink and other to float on water).
For Piaget, language was one of a number of symbol systems that are developed in childhood and can be used
to represent knowledge that children have acquired through physical interaction with the environment.
Vygotsky: He concluded that language develops primarily from social interaction. In a supportive interactive
environment, children are able to advance to a higher level of knowledge and performance.
Zone of proximal development and scaffolding
The theory of cognitive development focused on the role of culture in the development of higher mental
functions. The zone of proximal development is defined as the range of tasks that a child can perform with the
help and guidance of others but cannot yet perform independently.
Zone of Potential Development.

Zone of Proximal Development

Zone of Concrete Development

ZCD: upper limit of tasks one can performs independently.

ZProD:This is the upper limit of tasks that one can perform with the assistance of a more competent individual
(scaffold). This would allow the child to develop skills to use on his or her own to develop higher mental
functions.
ZPoD: what the children can’t do yet, no matter how much support they get.
Scaffolding is the support mechanism that helps a learner successfully perform a task within his or her ZPD.
For Vygotsky, though was essentially internalized speech and speech emerged in social interaction.
Cross-cultural: Researchers studied children’s language learning environments in a great many different cultural
communities. One result of the research is the description of the differences in childrearing patterns.
Child-directed speech: may be characterized by a slower rate of delivery, higher pitch, more varied intonation,
shorter, simpler sentence pattern, stress on key words, frequent repetition, and paraphrase. Topics of
conversation emphasise the child’s immediate environment. Furthermore, adults often repeat the content of a
child’s utterance but they expand or recast it into a grammatically correct sentence.
It depends on the culture, who is in charge of providing this kind of speech, elder siblings, parents, etc.
The importance of interaction: One-to-one interaction gives the child access to language that is adjusted to his
or her level of comprehension. The response of the adult may also allow children to find out when their own
utterances are understood. Once children have acquired some language, TV can be a source of language and
cultural information, but isolated it doesn’t provide the access to language needed.

Issues in FLA
Competence: the unobservable knowledge one has.
Performance: the observable, concrete manifestation of the competence.
Comprehension: has to do with the understanding the child has.
Production: the correct manifestation of knowledge.
Nature: knowledge that is innate to the child.
Nurture: knowledge that is environmentally boosted or acquired.
Universals: (linguistic categories) language share a structure which makes it easy to learn.
Systematicity: the development of language is systematic.
Variability: there is an equally remarkable amount of variability in the process of learning.
Language: Affects cognition.
Thought: becomes more complex as language develops.
Imitation: it’s one of the most important strategies a child uses in the acquisition of non-technical or complex
language.
Practice: helps to fix language.
Input: shapes the child’s language.
Discourse: Has to do with the interactive notion of language acquisition.
Pre-school and school years.
There is a predictable pattern of progress and development of many features of the language. Stages in LA are
related to children’s cognitive development. By the age of four most children can ask questions, give commands,
report real events and create stories about imaginary ones – using correct word order and grammatical markers
most of the time. Children’s language acquisition effort late pre-school years is spent in developing their ability
to use language in a widening social environment. They also develop metalinguistic awareness, the ability to treat
language as an object separate from the meaning it conveys. Learning to read gives a major boost to this aspect
of language development seeing words represented by letters and other symbols on a page leads child to a new
understanding that language has form as well as meaning. One impressive language development in the early
school years is the astonishing growth of vocabulary, it comes from both, reading for pleasure and for
assignment. Another important development is register, how written language differs from spoken language,
how the addresser can determine the level of formality.

SLA (Second Language Acquisition)

All theories of LA are intended to account for the ability of human learners to acquire language within a variety
of social and instructional environments.
The Structural Linguistics and Behavioral Psychology
Explained learning in terms of imitation, practice, reinforcement (or feedback on success) and habit formation.
Its influence was felt directly in the development of widely used audiolingual teaching materials and teacher
training. Classroom activities emphasized mimicry and memorization and Ss learned dialogues and sentences
patterns. Language was viewed as the formation of habits. The influence of the learner’s FL may not be simply a
matter of habits but a more subtle and complex process of identifying points of similarity.
The Generative Linguistics and Cognitive Psychology:
Chomsky argued that innate knowledge of the principles of UG permits all children to acquire the language of
their environment during a critical period of their development. Bley-Vrom suggested UG does not offer a good
explanation for the acquisition of a SL especially by learners who have passed the critical period. V. Cook (2003)
stated that there was no explanation for the fact that learners eventually know more about the language than
they could reasonably have learned if they had to depend entirely on the input they are exposed to. B. Schwatrz
(1993) concludes that feedback and instruction change only superficial aspects of language performance and do
not affect the underlying systematic knowledge of the new language. She argues that acquisition is based on the
availability of natural language in the learners’ environment. Interaction with speakers of that language is
sufficient to trigger the acquisition of the underlying structure of the language. Researcher who study second
language from a UG perspective are interested in whether the competence that underlies the use of the SL
resembles the competence underlying the language performance of native speakers.
Second language applications: Krashen’s ‘Monitor Model’ (1970)
1. Acquisition - Learning Hypothesis: we acquire language as we are exposed to. In Krashen’s view, far more
language is acquired than learned.
Acquisition: Subconscious and intuitive process of constructing the system of language.
Learning: Conscious learning process in which learners attend to form, figure out rules and are aware of their own
process.
2. Monitor Hypothesis: SL users draw on what they have acquired when they engage in spontaneous
communication. The “monitor” is involved in learning, not acquisition. It is a device for “watchdogging” one’s
output, for editing and making alterations as they are consciously perceived. Only once fluency is established,
optimal amount of monitoring or editing should be employed by the learner.
3. Natural Order Hypothesis: the language rules that are easiest to state are not necessarily the first to be acquired.
We acquire language rules in a predictable or “natural” order.
4. Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: acquisition occurs when one is exposed to language that is
comprehensible and contains I+1. I represents the level of language already acquired and +1 is a metaphor for
language that is just a step beyond that level, not too easy, not too difficult.
5. Affective Filter Hypothesis: the affective filter is a metaphorical barrier that prevents learners from acquiring
language even when appropriate in put is available. Feelings of anxiety or negative attitude that may be
associated with poor learning outcomes. Tension, anxiety or boredom may filter out input, making it unavailable
for acquisition
Input: All the language available in the environment (the language you see and hear).
Intake: Language that is internalized (take in). Not all input becomes intake.
What language can become intake? Language must be at an appropriate level (not too easy, not too difficult).
Otherwise it doesn’t offer new language opportunities for learning, won’t push learner to alter knowledge.
F and S language acquisition are seen as drawing on the same processes of perception, memory, categorization
and generalization. The difference lies in the circumstances of learning as well as in what the learners already
know about language and how that prior knowledge shapes their perception of the new language.
Cognitive psychologists see SLA as the building up of knowledge that can eventually be called on automatically
for speaking and understanding. What is innate is simply the ability to learn, rather than any specific linguistic
principles.
N. Ellis (2002) explains, the emphasis on the frequency with which learners encounter specific linguistic features
in the input and the frequency with which language features occur together. According to this, learners develop
a stronger and stronger network of associations or connections between these features as well as between
language features and the contexts in which they occur. Eventually, the presence of one situational or linguistic
features will activate the other(s) in learner’s mind. Connections are strong because the language features have
occurred together frequently, or weak if there were few opportunities to experience them together.
The competition model is an explanation for both FL and SL acquisition that takes into account not only
language form but also language meaning ad language use. Through exposure to thousands of examples speakers
come to understand how to use the ‘cues’ that signal specific functions. According to this model Sla requires
learners learn the importance of the different cues appropriate in the language they are learning.
The interaction hypothesis state that conversational interaction is an essential, if not sufficient, condition for
SLA. Comprehensible input is necessary for language acquisition. Speakers modify their speech an interaction
patterns in a conversation in order to achieve communication, they ‘negotiate for meaning’
Examples:
1. Comprehension checks-effort: Do you understand?
2. Clarification requests-efforts by the learner to get the native speaker to clarify sth that has not been
understood: Could you repeat?
3. Self-repetition or paraphrase.
Swain’s comprehensible output hypothesis: nothing is learned unless it has been ‘noticed’. Comprehensible input
does not lead to growth in language knowledge unless the learner becomes aware of a particular language
feature.
According to information processing theories anything uses up our mental processing space even if we are not
aware or attending to it intentionally, can contribute to learning. From a usage-based perspective the likelihood
of acquisition is best predicted by the frequency with which sth is available for processing not by the learner’s
awareness of something in the input.
Input processing: context helps to make sense; it is a good strategy for understanding the general ideas. But it
may interfere with learners’ progress in acquiring the language.
Processability theory concludes that the sequence of development for features of syntax and morphology was
affected by how easy these were to process. Ease of processing depend to a large extent on the position of those
features in a sentence. One important feature of this theory is the integration of developmental sequences with
FL influence. His theory explains why learners do no simply transfer features rom their FL at early stages of
acquisition. Instead, they have to develop a certain level of processing capacity in the second language before
they can use their knowledge of the features that already exist in their FL
The role of practice: practice is only effective if one practises the behaviour that one wishes to learn, it should be
interactive, meaninguful and focused on task-esstential form.

Constructivism
ZPD metaphorical location or site in which learners co construct knowledge in collaboration with an
interlocutor. The emphasis is on development and how learners co construct based on their interaction with
their interlocutor or in private speech. Vygotskyan theory has also been compared to the interaction hypothesis
because of the interlocutor’s role in helping learners understand and be understood. It gives a greater
importance to the conversations, learning through social interaction.
ZPD can be compared with Krashen’s 4th hypothesis, the comprehensible input hypothesis: I+1.

Styles and Strategies

Variations in learning styles that differ across individuals, and in strategies employed by individuals to attack
particular problems in particular contexts. In order to understand styles and strategies:
Process: Any number of behaviors, types of learning, needs, neural connections and emotional sets. It is a
characteristic of every human being
Style: They are the general characteristics of intellectual functioning and personality type that are directly related
to a person as an individual, and that differentiate him/her from someone else.
Strategies: They are specific methods of approaching a problem or task, modes of operation for achieving a
particular end, planned designs for controlling and manipulating certain information. They vary intraindividually.
Styles
Learning Styles: the “cognitive, affective, and physiological traits that are relatively stable indicators of how
learners perceive, interact with, and respond to the learning environment”. Learning styles mediate between:
Emotion & Cognition. They are a general predisposition, voluntary or not toward processing information in a
particular way.
There are nine styles of second language acquisition:

- Field independence/dependence.

- Random vs. sequential.

- Global vs. particular.

- Inductive vs. deductive.

- Synthetic vs. analytic.

- Analog vs. digital.

- Concrete vs. abstract.

- Leveling vs. Sharpening.

- Impulsive vs. reflective.

Five of these have been selected because of their relevance to teaching:

• Field Independent Style (FI):

It is a person’s ability to perceive a particular, relevant item or factor in a "field" of distracting items. In general
psychological terms, that “field” may be perceptual, or it may be more abstract and refer to a set of thoughts,
ideas, or feelings from which your task is to perceive specific relevant subsets.
An FI style enables a person to:
- distinguish parts from a whole (Monkey coloring book)
 - concentrates on something (like reading a book in a noisy train station)
- analyzes separate variables without the contamination of neighboring variables
Too much FI may result in cognitive “tunnel vision”: you see only the parts and not their relationship to the
whole. It is closely related to classroom learning that involves analysis, attention to details, and mastering of
exercises, drills and other focused activities.
A democratic, industrialized, competitive society with freer raising norms tends to produce more FI persons.
Persons who are FI tend to be generally more:

- Independent

- Competitive

- Self-confident
FI Student Characteristics:
- They have no problem concentrating amid noise and confusion.
- They enjoy analyzing grammatical structures.
- They feel they must understand every word of what they read or hear.
- They think classroom study is the key to effective language learning.
- They prefer working alone to working with other people.
- Receiving feedback from other people really doesn't affect their learning at all.

• Field Dependent Style (FD):

It is the tendency to be independent on the total field so that the parts embedded within the field is not easily
perceived. Authoritarian or agrarian societies, which are usually highly socialized and utilize strict raising
practices, tend to produce more FD.
Persons who are FD tend to be:

- More socialized

- Derive their self-identity from persons around them

- Are usually more empathic and perceptive of the feelings and thoughts of others
FD Student Characteristics:
- They need a quiet environment in order to concentrate well.
- They find grammar analysis tedious and boring.

- They don't mind reading or listening in the L2 without understanding every single word as long as they
'catch' the main idea.
- They think communication is the key to effective language learning.
- They really enjoy working with other people in pairs or groups.
- They find feedback useful as a means of understanding their problem areas.

• Right /Left Brain Functioning

As the child's brain matures, various functions become lateralized to the left or right hemisphere of the brain.
Left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical, mathematical and linear thought. Left-brain-dominant
second language learners preferred a deductive style of teaching. They are better at producing separate words,
gathering the specifics of language, carrying out sequences of operations, and dealing with abstraction,
classification, labeling, and reorganization. Right hemisphere perceives and remembers visual, tactile and
auditory images. It is better processing holistic and emotional information. Right-brain-dominant learners
appeared to be more successful in an inductive classroom environment. They appear to deal better with whole
images, with generalizations, with metaphors, and with emotional reactions and artistic expressions. The left and
right hemispheres operate together as a “team”.
Both hemispheric preference and FI/D show a strong relationship. Conclusions that were drawn for FI and FD
generally apply well for left- and right-brain functioning, respectively.

• Ambiguity tolerance:
Concerns the degree to which you are cognitively willing to tolerate ideas that run counter to your own belief
system or structure of knowledge. Ambiguity tolerance: relatively open-minded in accepting ideologies and
events and facts that contradict their own views.
Advantages:
- A person who is tolerant of ambiguity is free to entertain a number of innovative and creative
possibilities and not be cognitively or affectively disturbed by ambiguity and uncertainty.
- In second language learning a great amount of apparently contradictory information is encountered:
words that differ from the native language, exceptions when it comes to rules, etc.
- Successful language learning necessitates tolerance of such ambiguities, at least for interim periods or
stages, during which time ambiguous items are given a chance to become resolved. Disadvantages:
- Too much tolerance of ambiguity can have a damaging effect. (People can become "wishy-washy,"
accepting virtually every proposition before them, not efficiently subsuming necessary facts into their cognitive
organizational structure.
- Such excess tolerance has the effect of hampering or preventing meaningful subsumption of ideas.
Linguistic rules, for example, might not be effectively integrated into a whole system; rather, they may be gulped
down in meaningless chunks learned by rote).

• Ambiguity intolerance:
Closed-minded and dogmatic; they tend to reject items that are contradictory or slightly incongruent with their
existing system. Advantages: Certain intolerance at an optimal level enables one to close off avenues of hopeless
possibilities, to reject entirely contradictory material, and to deal with the reality of the system that one has built.
Disadvantages: If ambiguity is perceived as a threat; the result is a rigid, dogmatic, brittle mind that is too
narrow to be creative. This may be particularly harmful in second language learning.
-Naiman et al. (1978) found that ambiguity tolerance was one of only two significant factors in
predicting the success of their high school learners of French in Toronto.
- Chapelle and Roberts (1986) measured tolerance of ambiguity in learners of English as a second
language in Illinois. They found that learners with a high tolerance for ambiguity were slightly more successful in
certain language tasks. These findings suggest that ambiguity tolerance may be an important factor in second
language learning.
In the cognitive domain a person tends to make either a quick or gambling (impulsive) guess at an answer to a
problem or a slower, more calculated (reflective) to a decision.
Implications in second language acquisition:
Children who are conceptually reflective tend to make fewer errors in reading than impulsive children; however
impulsive persons are usually faster readers, and eventually master the “psycholinguistic guessing game” of
reading so that their impulsive style of reading may not necessarily deter comprehension.
Inductive reasoning was found to be more effective with reflective people.
In second language learning, reflective students are slower but more accurate than impulsive students in reading.
A reflective person may require patience from the teacher, who must allow more time for the student to struggle
with responses. An impulsive learner may not be judged too harshly for his/her mistakes; they may be more
willing than a reflective person to gamble at an answer.

• Visual, auditory and kinesthetic:

Preferences that learners show toward either visual, auditory and/or kinesthetic input.
Visual learners prefer reading, studying charts, drawings, graphic information.
Auditory learners prefer listening to lectures and audiotapes.
Kinesthetic learners prefer demonstration and physical activities involving body movements. Most successful
learners utilize both visual and auditory input, but slight preferences one way or the other may distinguish one
learner from another.
Learner styles represent preferred approaches, rather than immutable, stable traits, which mean learners, can
adapt (evidence of nurture).
Preference is usually cross-cultural for example Korean students are visually oriented, Chinese are auditory.
Autonomy, awareness, and action
The role of style and strategies in learning a second language are three linked concepts; autonomy, awareness,
and action.
Autonomy allow the learners to do things like initiate oral production; solve problems, practice language forms,
and practice using language outside class. And then the concept of autonomy demand on the learners to
become aware of their own processing of learning. So, too much awareness will help the learner’s yearning to
use language. To make it well, awareness need an action to use language, because awareness without action will
be relatively useless. Action in this chase becomes a main actor in second language acquisition.

Strategies
Strategies are those specific “attacks” that we make on a given problem, and that vary considerably within each
individual. They are the moment-by-moment techniques that we employ to solve “problems” posed by second
language input and output. Strategy in second language acquisition has been divided into two parts; learning
strategies and communication strategies. The former relate to input- to processing, storage, and retrieval,
that is, to taking in messages from others. The latter pertain to output, how we productively express meaning ,
how we deliver messages to others.
To know about good language learners, Rubin (1975) and Stern (1975) have summarized these characteristics;
1. Find the own way, taking charge of the learning.
 2. Organize the information about language.
3. Be creative in developing language by experimenting grammar and words.
4. Make opportunities for practice in using language.
5. Learn to live uncertainly.
6. Use mnemonics and other strategies.
7. Make errors works.
8. Use linguistic knowledge and including knowledge.
9. Use contextual cues.
10. Learn to make intelligent guesses.
11. Learn chunks of language.
12. Learn certain tricks to keep conversation going.
13. Learn certain production strategies to fill in gaps.
14. Learn different styles of speech and writing, and learn to vary the language according to the
formality of the situation.
Learning Strategies
Learning strategies were divided into three main categories; Metacognitive, Cognitive, and Socioaffective.
Metacognitive strategy is a term used in information-processing theory to indicate an “executive” function,
strategies that involve planning for learning, thinking about the learning process as it is taking place, monitoring
of one’s production or comprehension and evaluating learning after an activity is completed.
Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks and involve more direct manipulation of the
learning material itself.
Socioaffective strategies have to do with social-mediating activity and interesting with others.
Communication Strategies
Communication strategies pertain to the employment of verbal or nonverbal mechanisms for the productive
communication of information. They are strategies that learners use to overcome these problems in order to
convey their intended meaning. Strategies used may include paraphrasing, substitution, coining new words,
switching to the first language, and asking for clarification. We are going to mention a few of these strategies:
Avoidance strategies: Is a common communication strategy that can be broken down into several
subcategories. The most common type of avoidance strategy is syntactic or lexical avoidance within a semantic
category. Phonological avoidance is also common. Another type of avoidance is topic avoidance, in which a
whole topic of conversation might be avoided entirely.
Compensatory strategies: Another common set of communication devices involves compensation for missing
knowledge.
1. Circumlocution: This refers to learners using different words or phrases to express their intended
meaning. For example, if learners do not know the word grandfather they may paraphrase it by saying "my father's
father”.
 1. Approximation: Using an alternative term which expresses the meaning of the target lexical item as
closely as possible.
2. Use of all-purpose words: Extending a general, empty lexical item to contexts where specific words
are lacking (e.g., the overuse of thing, what-do-you-call-it, thingie).
3. Word coinage: Creating a nonexistent L2 word based on a supposed rule.
4. Prefabricated patterns: Using memorized stock phrases.
5. Nonlinguistic signals: Mime, gesture, facial expression, or sound imitation.
6. Literal translation: Translating literally a lexical item, idiom, compound word, or structure form L1
to L2.
7. Foreignizing: Using a L1 word by adjusting it to L2 phonology and/or morphology.
8. Code-switching: Using a L1 word with L1 pronunciation or a L3 word with L3 pronunciation while
speaking L2.
9. Appeal for help: Asking for aid from the interlocutor either directly or indirectly.
10. Stalling or time-gaining strategies: Using fillers or hesitation devices to fill pauses and to gain time
to think (e.g., well, uh).
Strategies-based instructions
Teachers can benefit from understanding of what makes learners successful and unsuccessful, and establish in
the classroom a milieu for the realization of successful strategies. Teachers cannot always expect instant success
in that effort since students often bring with them certain preconceived notions of what “ought” to go on in the
classroom. However, it has been found that students will benefit from SBI if they (1) understand the strategy
itself, (2) perceive it to be effective, and (3) do not consider its implementation to be overly difficult.
The effective implementation of SBI in language classroom involves several steps and considerations: (1)
identifying learner’s style and potential strategies; (2) incorporating SBI in communicative language courses and
classrooms; (3) providing extra-class assistance for learners.

Sociocultural Factors

Culture: definitions & theories

-A away of life; the context within how people exist, think, feel, and relate to others.
-The “glue” that binds a group of people together.
-ideas, customs, skills, arts and tools that characterized a given group of people in a given period of time.
-A blue print that guides the behavior of people in a community. It helps to know how far we can go as
individuals and our responsibilities to the group. Larson and Smalley (1972)
-A dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by groups in order to ensure their survival,
involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors, shared by a group but harbored differently by each
explicit unit within the group, communicated across generations, relatively stable but with the potential to
change across time. Matsumoto (2000)
-The meaningful universe in which each human being exists is not a universal reality, but ‘a category of reality’
consisting of selectively organized features considered significant by the society in which he lives. Condon
(1973)
-Culture is needed to fulfill certain biological and psychological needs in people. No society exists without a
culture.
--- “No man is an Island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the man… any man’s
death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell
tolls, it tolls for thee”.
It’s a quotation from the English metaphysical poet John Donne (1624).
It expresses the idea that human beings do badly when isolated from others and need to be part of a community
in order to thrive.
But according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, known as one of the most influential thinkers during the 18th-
century European Enlightenment period. “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. One man thinks
himself the master of others, but remains more of a slave than they “Rousseau proclaimed the natural goodness
of man and believed that one man by nature is just as good as any other.
Humans are naturally free and good but are corrupted by institutions of society (“Man is born free, but he is
everywhere in chains”).
Humans being were naturally good but corrupted by society. (1624). published Social Contract.
People tend to believe that their own reality is the “correct” perception.
Language is a part of culture, and culture is a part of language. These two cannot be separated without losing
the significance of either one.
According to Condon, culture is the context which we exist, think, feel, and relate to others.
It governs our behavior in groups, makes us aware to matters of status, and helps us know what others expects
from us and what our responsibilities are as part of a group. Humans have a need for culture to fulfill certain
biological and psychological needs, every day we deal with facts that might be confusing, the organization of
these facts provides order to potential chaos. The mental constructs that enable us to be organized are a way of
life that we call “culture”.
However, we tend to perceive reality within the context of our own culture. Thus, perception is always
subjective. Misunderstandings are likely to occur between members of different cultures.
What in our culture may seem conservative, it might be liberal to another?
As culture is a part of every human being, when we acquire a second language, we also acquire a second culture,
unless the acquisition is instrumental.
There are some important aspects of the relationship between learning a second language and its cultural
context.

Stereotypes or generalizations
Refers to a standardized image that we have about other people or culture. We tend to picture other cultures in
an over simplified manner, placing cultural differences into exaggerated categories, and then view every person
in a culture with a stereotypical trait.
Stereotypes are usually formed by our cultural environment. We see reality according to our own culture
patterns, and understand different points of view, they usually adopt a positive and openminded attitude toward
the other culture.
On an educational environment, both learners and teachers of a second language need to understand cultural
differences. This comprehension will mostly lead to appreciation.
Stereotyping usually involves some type of attitude toward the culture or language in question.
Attitude is an aspect of the development of cognition and affect in human beings.
Gardner and Lambert (1972) attempted to examine the attitude in language learning.
They defined motivation as a construct made up of certain attitudes. It’s important to define the attitude and
motivation learners have toward the culture of language they are learning. It seems clear that learners benefit
from positive attitudes and that negatives attitudes may lead to decreased motivation, thus, unsuccessful
attainment of proficiency. Teachers can aid in dispelling what are often myths about other cultures, and replace
them with an accurate understanding of the other culture as once that is different from one’s own, yet to be
respected and valued. Therefore, students will develop a desire to understand and empathize with others, and
will lead them to an intrinsic motivation.
Many students in foreign language classrooms learn the language with little or no sense of the cultural norms
and patterns of the people who speak the language. Culture learning is a process of creating share meaning
between cultures. It continues over years of language learning, and penetrates deeply into one’s thinking, feelings
and acting. This process involves the acquisition of a second identity. The creation of this new identity is known
as “acculturation”. It is more acute when language is brought into the context, culture is part of our being, but
language is the most visible expression of that culture.
Drukhiem (1897) explained the concept of “anomie”, which is a feeling of social uncertainty or
dissatisfaction. There are 4 stages of culture acquisition:
- First stage is a period of excitement involving the newness of the surroundings.
- 2Nd stage is called culture shock. It refers to a feel of self-pity and anger for not understanding the
new culture.
- 3rd stage is one of gradual recovery. Individuals begin to accept the differences between cultures.
- Last stage represents near or full recovery. Acceptance and assimilation of the new culture takes place
here.
Social Distance is defined as the cognitive and affective proximity of two cultures that come into contact
within an individual.
John Schumann describes social distance as consisting of the following parameters:
-Dominance is the 2nd language group politically, culturally, technically, or economically dominant, non-
dominant, or subordinate in relation to the target language (TL) group
-Integration is the integration pattern of the second language group assimilation, acculturation, or reservation.
-Cohesiveness is the second language group cohesive
-Congruence are the cultures of the 2 groups congruent-similar in their value and belief systems
-Permanence What is the L2 group’s intended length of residence in the target language area?
Schumann’s hypothesis: the greater the social distance between two cultures, the greater the difficulty in
learning the second language and conversely, the smaller the social distance, the better will be the learning
situation. The implication is that successful language learners are capable of maintaining some balance between
both cultures.
Since it is hard to measure the actual distance between cultures, William Acton proposed a measure of
perceived social distance. He affirms that the social distance depends on how and individual perceives their
culture and the target language culture. Another concept relating to social distance is optimal distance model. It
refers to acquiring a sufficient number of functions of a second language without acquiring the correct forms.
They have no reason to master the language since they have learned to cope without sophisticated knowledge of
it.
-Optimal perceived social distance ratio
. typifies the “good” language learner.
. maintaining some distance between themselves and both cultures.
Supported Lambert’s (1967) contention that mastery of the foreign language takes place hand in hand with
feelings of anomie or homelessness, where learners have moved away from their native culture but are still not
completely assimilated into or adjusted to the target culture.
Svanes (1987,1988) found that university foreign students studying in Norway appeared to achieve higher
language proficiency if they had “a balanced and critical attitude to the host people” as opposed to uncritical
admiration for all aspects of the target language.

Teaching intercultural competence

Why do we need to pay attention to the intercultural competence?
Is important to promote cultural understanding and weaken culture stereotypes. There are a number of studies
that proves the positive effects of incorporating cultural awareness in a classroom. Teachers can use some
strategies that will help students understand better the target language culture.
Geert Hofstede use 4 conceptual categories to study cultural norms:
• Individualism: as opposed to collectivism, assume that any person looks primarily after his or her own interest
and his or her family. Collectivist cultures assume that any person belongs to a group and protects the interest of
its members.
• Power distance defines to what degree in equality is tolerated within a culture. `
• Uncertainty avoidance: is when an individual is made nervous by situations that they do not understand,
therefore try to avoid by maintaining codes of behavior or a belief in absolute truths.
• Masculinity: as opposed to femininity, aims for maximal distinction between what men are expected do not and
what women are expected to do.

Language policy and politics

Every country has some type of policy that affects the status of its native language and one or more foreign
languages. Mostly politics gets interest in language policies when there is some power or economic gain. The
growth of English as International language has raised discussions about the status of English in its varieties of
what is now called “World Englishes”.
Language policy
What a government does officially through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine how languages are
used, to cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or
groups to use and maintain languages.
Many countries have a language policy designed to favor or discourage the use of a particular language or set of
languages.
World Englishes
refers to the emergence of localized or indigenized varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed
in nations colonized by England or the United States. Indian English, Singapore English, and Philippine English
are commonly referred to as examples of World English, as each of these varieties has native speakers. In
certain countries, learning English does not involve taking on a new culture. For example, is learning English in
India.
ESL and EFL
ESL (English as a second language) is usually used when talking about primary and secondary schools, in
order to clarify English is not the students' first language, but their second.
EFL (English as a Foreign Language) indicates the use of English in a non–English-speaking region.
Study can occur either in the student's home country, as part of the normal school curriculum or, for the more
privileged minority, in an Anglophone country that they visit as educational tourist immediately before or after
graduating from university.
Language Imperialism and Language Rights
Language imperialism involves the transfer of a dominant language to other people.
The transfer is essentially a demonstration of power, traditionally, military power but also, in the modern world,
economic power and aspects of the dominant culture are usually transferred along with the language.
Linguistic imperialism is often seen in the context of cultural imperialism.
“ENGLISH ONLY” debate
There is a debate in United States of the widespread move to establish English as an ‘official language’.
English-only movement, also known as Official English movement, refers to a political movement for the use
only of the English language in official government operations through the establishing of English as the only
official language in the United States. There have been various unrelated incarnations of the movement
throughout American history.
The following States have existing official language Laws on their books: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, South Carolina, but were passed since 1970s
and Louisiana (1811) and Nebraska (1920).
Language, thought, and culture
The relationship between language and thought is very significant. The way of an idea or fact is stated affects
the way we conceptualize the idea. We learn how to label things depending on what we are told since the
beginning.
-Ideas, issues, inventions and discoveries create the need for new words.
-Words, language and verbal labels shape our lives and the way people think. Example: the advertising world use
language to shape, persuade and dissuade.
George Lakoff (2004) reminds us of the importance of language and verbal labels in shaping the way people
think. Verbal labels can shape the way we store events for later recall.
-Besides words, sentence structure also affects the meaning. subjects were asked questions like:
A. “Did you see the broken headlight?”
B. “Did you see a broken headlight?”
-The presence of the definite article led subjects to believe that there must have been a broken headlight
whether they saw it or not.
Culture, language & thought
-An integral part of the interaction between language and thought.
-Culture patterns of cognition and customs are sometimes explicitly coded in language.
-Lexical items may reflect something about the intersection of culture and cognition.
Culture in the language classroom
-Culture is the foundation of communication.
-Culture and communication are inseparable.
-Inject culture into the classroom through lessons and activities.
Linguistics - concepts of language analysis that are the basis of inter-cultural communication.
Psychology - concepts we use in understanding people’s motivation and behavior
Sociology and anthropology - influenced our study of behavior.
All these influences form social values in different communities.

Conclusion:
Culture is inherent in our being and a powerful human tool to develop our society, add to our knowledge and
stablish the relationships between people.
Human beings have a nature and inherent competence to acquire languages.
Understanding a new culture is an important element in achieving the success in second language acquisition.
For achieving true linguistic comprehension, culture and language should be learned together.

Building a Theory of Second Language Acquisition.

It is correct to state that second language learning is a complex process; which we can see all along this book. But
complexity means that there are many separate factors which may be actually interrelated within one entity that is
difficult to bring order and simplicity to that “chaos” (Larsen-Freeman, 1997). Nevertheless, we must pursue the
task of theory building (Hulstijn, 2003; Doughty & Long, 2003; Gregg, 2003).
Domains and generalizations
Many years ago, Yorio (1976) proposed a taxonomy which shows many different domains of inquiry that must be
included in a theory of Second Language Acquisition. This can be seen in page 286 from the book.
The classification of the learner variables by Yorio would be the next:
• Age
• Cognition
• Native Language
• Input
• Affective Domain
 • Educational Background
This list of factors begins to give us an idea of the many different domains of inquiry that must be included in a
theory of Second Language Acquisition. In addition, most of the factors included in the chapter topics of this
book are also a set of domains of consideration in a theory of Second Language Acquisition (SLA).
Domains considered in the theory of SLA:
• General understanding of what language, learning and teaching are.
• The knowledge of how children learn their first language.
• To understand the differences between adult and child learning and between first and second language
acquisition.
• General principles of human learning and intelligence go together with learning a second language.
• There is tremendous variation across learners in cognitive style and within a learner in strategy choice.
• The way people show and reveal themselves in communication will affect both the quantity and quality of
second language learning.
• To learn a second language often means to learn a second culture.
• The acquisition of communicative competence is in many ways socialization, which would be the main goal
for those learning a second language.
• The linguistic contrast between the native and target language form one source of difficulty in learning a second
language.
These nine statements along with taxonomies, such as Yorio’s, constitute a basic framework for a theory of SLA.
The interrelations within that framework have either implicitly or explicitly been discussed, as one cannot engage
in a specification of beneficial learner strategies without referencing age, human learning in general and some
crucial affective factors. Moreover, when comparing first and second language acquisition, it is impossible to
ignore affective and cultural variables and differences between adult and child cognition.
No single component of this theory is sufficient on its own, interaction and interdependence between the rest of
the components are necessary.
Hypothesis and Claims
As stated before, a theory of SLA is a mixture of hypothesis and claims about how people became proficient in a
second language. Lightbown (1985) made the following claims:
• Adults and adolescents can “acquire” a second language.
• The learner creates a systematic interlanguage that is often characterized by the same systematic errors as those
of the child learning the same language as the first language, as well as others based on the learners’ own native
language.
• There are predictable sequences in acquisition so that certain structures have to be acquired before others can
be integrated.
• Practice does not make perfect.
• Knowing a language rule does not mean one will be able to use it in communicative interaction.
• Isolated explicit error correction is usually ineffective in changing language behavior.
• For adult learners, acquisition stops- “fossilizes”- before the learner has achieved nativelike mastery of the
target language.
• One cannot achieve nativelike command of a second language in one hour a day
• The learner’s task is enormous because language is enormously complex.
• A learner’s ability to understand language in a meaningful context exceeds his or her ability to comprehend
decontextualized language and to produce language of comparable complexity and accuracy.
In addition, another set of statements was made by Lightbown and Spada (1993) outlining some myths about
SLA. The next “popular ideas” may not be supported by research.
• Languages are learned mainly through imitation.
• Parents usually correct young children when they make errors.
 • People with high IQs are good language learners.
• The earlier a second language is introduced in school programs, the greater the likelihood of success in learning.
• Most of the mistakes that second language learners make are due to interference from their first language.
• Learners’ errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to prevent the formation of bad habits.
Unlike Yorio’s list and the nine items that synopsized the chapter topics of the book, most of Lightbown’s
generalizations and myths do more than define a domain. They hypnotize directionality within a domain, and are
therefore the subject of debate. All claims are the beginning of theory building. As we start examining the claims
and refine them into sets of tenable hypotheses, we begin to build a theory.
Criteria for Viable Theory
Dianne Larsen-Freeman (1997), argued that SLA is a dynamic, complex and non- linear system in which each
learner takes a different path to achieve success.
She also suggested some lessons from chaos theory to help us design a theory of SLA:
• Beware of false dichotomies or contradictions. Look for complementarity, inclusiveness and interface.
• Beware of linear, casual approaches to theorizing because SLA is very complex with so many interacting factors.
• Beware of overgeneralizations (focus on details).
• Beware of reductionist thinking (oversimplifying a complex system)
If a theory avoids all of these four pitfalls, then perhaps it is on its way to achieving adequacy.
Michael Long (1990) addressed the problem of theory building in a number of suggestions about “the least” a
theory of SLA needs to explain:
• Account for universals
• Account for environmental factors
• Account for variability in age, acquisition rate, and proficiency level.
• Explain both cognitive and affective factors.
• Account for form-focused learning, not just subconscious acquisition.
• Account for other variables besides exposure and input.
• Account for cognitive/innate factors which explain interlanguage systematicity.
• Recognize that acquisition is not a steady accumulation of generalizations.
The process of theory building may be best explored in two ways. First, we will take a look at some of the “hot
topics” in current SLA research and theory. And second, we will examine several models of SLA that have
appeared in recent history.
Hot Topics in SLA research
The purpose of this outline is to provide a quick set of definitions of some terms not yet covered in previous
chapters. Another is to review some terms already covered, but to bring them to the forefront as they are crucial
to understand theoretical models of SLA.
Explicit and Implicit Learning
Explicit learning: Involves conscious awareness and attention.
Implicit learning: Means learning without conscious attention or awareness.
Despite being different types of learning, attention can occur under both conditions.
There’s a universal agreement that both explicit and implicit learning offer advantages and disadvantages.
So, under what conditions, for which learners and for what linguistic elements is one approach advantageous to
SLA? And, how are we to measure explicit knowledge?
Generalizations are not possible; all the specifics of a given context should be considered before making a
conclusion.
Awareness
It is similar to conscious learning, where learners are intentionally controlling their attention and some aspect of
input and output.
Schmidt’s (1999) proposed the noticing hypothesis in which he suggested a central role for focal attention,
stemming from awareness, for a learner to notice language input.
Noticing may be an essential prerequisite to a learner’s ability to convert input into intake.
-Input: refers to the subset of all input that actually gets assigned to our long-term memory store.
-Intake: is what you take with you over a period of time and can later remember.

The debate over requisite levels of awareness in SLA is complex and demands a careful specification of conditions
before any conclusion can be offered.
Certain degree of focus on form can be beneficial.
It seems advantageous that learners are much too consciously involved in the forms of the target language that it
blocks their ability to focus on meaning.
Input and output
• Their relationship in SLA was controversial but is becoming less so.
• Input- the process of comprehending language (listening and reading)
• Output- is the production of language (speaking and writing)
• Both of these processes are necessary, they vary in degree of complementary distribution in L2 learners’
language learning process.
Frequency
It represents how many times a specific word, structure or other defined element of language captures the attention
of a learner. It may be more important than we once thought. Educators cannot simply ignore the possibility that
frequency can potentially influence acquisition.
Language Teaching Approaches

Pre-20th century trends

Prior to this century language teaching methodology vacillated between two types of approaches on type of
approach which focused on using a language the other type that focused on analysing a language.
Classical Greek and Medieval Latin periods characterized by an emphasis on teaching people to use foreign
languages.
Teachers or tutors used informal and direct approaches to convey the form and meaning of the language they
were teaching and that they used aural-oral techniques with no language textbooks per se, but rather a small
stock of hand-copied written manuscripts of some sort, perhaps a few texts in the target language, or crude
dictionaries that listed equivalent words in two or more languages side by side.
Comenius published books about his teaching techniques between 1631 and 1658. Some of the techniques that
were used and espoused were:
- Use imitation instead of rules to teach a language
- Have your students repeat after you
- Use a limited vocabulary initially
- Help your students practice reading and speaking
- Teach language through pictures to make it meaningful.
INDUCTIVE APPROACH teach use rather than analysis.
By the beginning of the 19th century, the analytical GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION APPROACH became firmly
entrenched, as a method of teaching.
By the end of the 19th century the DIRECT METHOD stressed the ability to use rather than to analyse a
language as the goal of language instruction. In the early 20th century, few foreign language teachers were fluent
speakers of the language they were teaching. This later led the Modern Language Association of America to
endorse the READING APPROACH to language teaching, since given the skills and limitations of most
language teachers, the most one could reasonably expect is that students would come away from the study of a
foreign language with an ability to read the target language with emphasis on some of the great works of
literature that had been produced in the language. The READING APPROACH held until the 1940, when
World War II once more made it imperative for the US military to teach foreign language quickly and efficiently.
At this time, the US government hired linguists to help teach languages and develop materials. The
AUDIOLINGUAL APPROACH, advocated organizing structures around situations that would provide the
learner with maximum opportunity to practice the target language, with “practice” nonetheless often meaning
little more than choral repetition.

Nine 20th century approaches to language

1) GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION APPROACH
a. Instruction is given in the native language of the students.
b. There is little use of the target language.
c. Focus is on grammatical parsing.
[Link] is early reading of difficult classical texts.
e. A typical exercise is to translate sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
f. The result of this approach is usually an inability on the part of the student to use the language for
communication.
g. The teacher does not have to be able to speak the target language.
2) DIRECT APPROACH
a. No use of the mother tongue is permitted.
b. Lessons begin with dialogs and anecdotes in modern conversational style.
c. Actions and pictures are used to make meanings clear.
d. Grammar is learned inductively.
e. Literary texts are read for pleasure and are not analysed grammatically.
f. The target culture is also taught inductively.
g. The teacher must be a native speaker or have nativelike proficiency in the language.
3) READING APPROACH
Reading was viewed as the most usable skill to have in a foreign language since ordinary people travelled abroad
around 1930, few teachers could use a foreign language well enough to use a direct approach in class.
a. Only the grammar useful for reading comprehension is taught.
b. Vocabulary is controlled at first (based on frequency and usefulness) and then expanded.
c. Translation is once more a respectable classroom procedure.
d. reading comprehension is the only language skill emphasized.
e. The teacher does not need to have good oral proficiency in the target language.
4) AUDIOLINGUALISM
It was a reaction to the reading approach and its lack of emphasis on oral-aural skills. It became dominant in the
USA during 1940s, 1950s, 1960s; it takes much from the direct approach but adds features from structural
linguistics and behavioural psychology.
a. Lessons begin with dialogs.
b. Mimicry and memorization are used, based on the assumption that language is habit formation.
c. Grammatical structures are sequenced and rules are taught inductively.
d. Skills are sequenced: listening, speaking-reading, writing postponed.
e. Pronunciation is stressed from the beginning.
f. Vocabulary is severely limited in initial stages.
g. A great effort is made to prevent learner errors.
h. Language is often manipulated without regard to meaning or context.
i. The teacher must be proficient only in the structures, vocabulary, etc. that s/he is teaching since learning
activities and materials are carefully controlled.
5) SITUATIONAL APPROACH
a. The spoken language is primary
b. All language materials is practiced orally before being presented in written form (reading and writing are
taught only after an oral base in lexical and grammatical forms has been established)
c. Only the target language should be used in the classroom.
d. Efforts are made to ensure that the most general and useful lexical items are presented.
e. Grammatical structures are graded from simple to complex.
f. New items (lexical and grammatical) are introduced and practiced situationally
6) COGNITIVE APPROACH
a. Language learning is viewed as rule acquisition, not habit formation.
b. Instruction is often individualized, learners are responsible for their own learning.
c. Grammar must be taught but it can be taught deductively and/or inductively.
d. Pronunciation is de-emphasized, perfection is viewed as unrealistic.
e. Reading and writing are once again as important as listening and speaking.
f. Vocabulary instruction is important, especially at intermediate and advanced levels.
g. errors are viewed as inevitable, something that should be used constructively in the learning process.
h. The teacher is expected to have good general proficiency in the target language as well as an ability to analyse
the target language.
7) AFFECTIVE-HUMANIST APPROACH
A reaction to the general lack of affective considerations in both audiolingualism and cognitive code.
a. Respect is emphasized for the individual and for his/her feelings.
b. Communication that is meaningful to the learner is emphasized.
c. Instructions involves much work in pairs and small groups.
d. Class atmosphere is viewed as more important than materials or methods.
e. Peer support and interaction is needed for learning.
f. Learning a foreign language is viewed as a self-realization experience.
g. The teacher is viewed as a counsellor or facilitator.
h. The teacher should be proficient in the target language and the students’ native language since translation may
be used heavily in the initial stages to help students feel at ease.
8) COMPREHENSION-BASED APPROACH
An outgrowth of research in first language acquisition, which led some language methodologists to assume that
second or foreign language learning is very similar to first language acquisition.
a. Listening comprehension is very important and is viewed as the basic skill that will allow speaking, reading,
and writing to develop spontaneously over time given the right conditions.
b. Learners should begin by listening to meaningful speech and by responding nonverbally in meaningful ways
before they produce any language themselves.
c. Learners should not speak until they feel ready to do so; this results in better pronunciation than when the
learner is forced to speak immediately,
d. Learners progress by being exposed to meaningful input that is just one step beyond their level of
competence.
e. Rule learning may help learners monitor (or become aware of) what they do, but it will not aid their
acquisition or spontaneous use of the target language.
f. Error correction is seen as unnecessary and perhaps even counterproductive; the important thing is that the
learners can understand and can make themselves understood.
g. If the teacher is not a native speaker (or near-native), appropriate materials such as audiotapes and videotapes
must be available to provide the appropriate input for the learners.
9)COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH
Grew out of the work of anthropological linguists (e.g., Hymes, 1972) and Firthian linguists (e.g., Halliday,
1973), who view language first and foremost as a system for communication).
a. It is assumed that the goal of language teaching is learner ability to communicate in the target language.
b. It is assumed that the content of a language course will include semantic notions and social functions, not just
linguistic structures.
c. Students regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer (and, if necessary, negotiate) meaning in situations where
one person has information that the other(s) lack.
d. Students often engage in role-play or dramatization to adjust their use of the target language to different social
contexts.
e. Classroom materials and activities are often authentic to reflect real-life situations and demands.
f. Skills are integrated from the beginning; a given activity might involve reading, speaking, listening, and perhaps
also writing (this assumes the learners are educated and literate).
g. The teacher's role is primarily to facilitate communication and only secondarily to correct errors.
h. The teacher should be able to use the target language fluently and appropriately.
The four more recently developed approaches also do this to some extent; however, each one is grounded on a
slightly different theory or view of how people learn second or foreign languages, or how people use languages,
and each has a central point around which everything else revolves: Cognitive Approach: Language is rule-
governed cognitive behavior (not habit formation). Affective-Humanistic Approach: Learning a foreign language
is a process of self-realization and of relating to other people. Comprehension Approach: Language acquisition
occurs if and only if the learner comprehends meaningful input. Communicative Approach: The purpose of
language (and thus the goal of language teaching) is communication. These four more recent approaches are not
necessarily in conflict or totally incompatible since it is not impossible to conceive of an integrated approach
which would include attention to rule formation, affect, comprehension, and communication and which would
view the learner as someone who thinks, feels, understands, and has something to say.
A note on Approach, Method and Syllabus Type.
- A METHOD is a set of procedures and they are typically compatible with
one (or sometimes two) APPROACHES.
- An APPROACH to language teaching is something that reflects a certain
model or research paradigm – a theory.
METHODS are more specific than APPROACHES but less specific than
TECHNIQUES.
- A TECHINIQUE 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, some techniques are specific to/or
characteristic of a given method.

Historically, an approach or method also tends to be used in conjunction with a syllabus, which is an inventory
of things the learner should master; this inventory is sometimes presented in a recommended sequence and is
used to design courses and teaching materials.
* structural syllabus, which consists of a list of grammatical inflections and constructions that the teacher is
expected to teach and the learner is expected to master. The Grammar-Translation Approach, the Direct
Approach, the Audiolingual Approach, the Cognitive Approach, and even some methods following the
Comprehension Approach have all employed a structural syllabus.
* structural syllabus, the Reading Approach is text based, and this kind of language course is organized around
texts and vocabulary items with only minor consideration given to grammar.
* In the Situational Approach, there is often a dual-objective syllabus in which various situations are specified
for instruction (e.g., the post office, a restaurant, a bus, the doctor's office, etc.) along with some of the
structures and the vocabulary that one might need to produce language in these situations.
* In the Communicative Approach, one type of syllabus is organized around notions (meanings such as spatial
location, age, degree) and functions (social transactions and interactions such as asking for information or
complimenting someone). In this syllabus format grammar and vocabulary are quite secondary, being taught not
in and of themselves, but only insofar as they help express the notions and functions that are in focus.
* communicative syllabus in which real-world tasks and materials are used to design language courses.
* The Affective-Humanistic Approach has produced the most radical syllabus type-the learner generated
syllabus. Thus, in methods like Community Language Learning and Project Work, the learners decide what they
want to learn in and do with the target language.

Methodology: selecting sequencing and justifying learning tasks and experiences. It focuses on classroom
techniques and procedures.
CLT: Meaning emphasize over fluency, over accuracy.
Principles for language teaching methodology:
Focus on the learner (learner-centred classroom, learners actively involved in their own learning processes)
Developing your own personal methodology: Teachers have their own teaching styles, derived from their
professional training and experience as well as their own experience as learners. As circumstances, Ss and levels
of experience change, so will the practices. Not all practices are equally valid for all learners.
Successful instructional sequences:
1- 1 or more pre tasks to create interest, help build Ss’s schema in relation to the topic, introduce key
vocabulary, revise grammatical point.
2- Main task (several steps or subtasks)
3- Follow up: to elicit feedback, correct errors.
Total Physical Response

• This method was built around the coordination of speech and action. Therefore, its attempt is to teach language
through physical activity.
• Developed around 1965 by James Asher, a professor of psychology at San Jose State University, in California.

Approach: Theory of language and learning.

• This method reflects a grammar-based view of language.
• Asher views the verb, particularly the verb in imperative, as the central linguistic motif around which language
us and learning are organized.
• Asher also links this method to the “trace theory” of memory in psychology, which consists of the more often or
the more intensively a memory connection is traced, the more likely it is to be recalled. Retracing, or going over
some information can be done verbally by repetition, or in association with motor activity.

Three learning hypothesis by Asher

1. There exists a specific innate bio-program for language learning, which defines an optimal path for first
and second language development.
2. Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in the left- and right-brain hemispheres.
3. Stress intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be learnt; the lower the stress, the greater the
learning.

The bio-program
• Asher’s Total Physical Response is a “Natural Method”, as he sees first and second language learning as
parallel processes.
• Asher sees three processes as central:
1. Children develop listening competence before they develop the ability to speak. At an early age, children
understand complex utterances which cannot imitate yet.
2. Children’s ability in listening comprehension is acquired due to parents’ commands, as children are
required to respond physically to spoken language.
3. Once listening comprehension is established, speech evolves naturally and effortlessly out of it.
• The foreign language learner should first internalize a “cognitive map” of the target language through listening
exercises. Listening should be accompanied by physical movement.
• Speech and other productive skills should come later.
• Asher believes that the brain and nervous system are biologically programmed to acquire language in a
particular sequence (listening before speaking) and in a particular mode (synchronizing language with the
individual’s body).

Brain lateralization
• Asher sees the Total Physical Response Method as directed to right-brain learning, whereas most second
language teaching methods are directed to left-brain learning.
• Right-hemisphere activities must occur before the left-hemisphere can process language for production.
• Similarly, the adult should proceed to language mastery through right-hemisphere motor activities, while the
left-hemisphere watches and learns.
• When a sufficient amount of right-hemisphere learning has taken place, the left hemisphere will be triggered to
produce language and to initiate other, more abstract language processes.
Reduction of stress
An important condition for successful language learning is the absence of stress.
• First language acquisition takes place in a stress-free environment, while the adult language learning
environment often causes stress and anxiety.
• The key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-program for language development and recapture
the relaxed and pleasurable experiences that accompany first language learning.
• Focusing on meaning interpreted through movement, rather than on language forms studied in the abstract,
the learner is said to be liberated from self-conscious and stressful situations and is able to devote full energy to
learning.

Objectives
• To teach oral proficiency at a beginning level.
• A TPR course aims to produce learners who are capable of an uninhibited communication that is intelligible to
a native speaker
• There are not specific instructional objectives, as they may vary on the particular needs of the learners.
Whatever goals are set, however, must be attained through the use of physical activity in the imperative form.

Syllabus
• The Total Physical Response Method will initially draw attention to meaning rather than to the form of items.
• Grammar is taught inductively.
• Asher suggests that a fixed number of items be introduced at a time, to facilitate ease of differentiation and
assimilation.

Activities
• Imperative drills are the major classroom activity in this method.
• Conversational dialogs (only after about 120 hours of instruction).
• Role plays on everyday situations (e.g. At the restaurant, supermarket, etc).
• Slide presentations.

Roles
Learners:
• Their primary role is of listeners and performers; they listen attentively and respond physically to commands
given by the teacher.
• They are expected to recognize and respond to items previously taught.
• Learners monitor and evaluate their own progress.
• They are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to speak (After language has been internalized).
Teacher:
• Teacher plays an active and direct role.
• To provide opportunities for learning is more important than to teach.
• The teacher has the responsibility of providing the best kind of exposure to language in order to help the
students internalize the basic rules of the target language.
• The teacher should allow speaking abilities to develop in learners at their own pace.
• When giving feedback to their students, teachers should follow the example of parents giving feedback to their
children. At first, parents correct very little but as their children grow older, they tolerate fewer mistakes in
speech. Similarly, teachers allow to have some mistakes at first in order not to inhibit students from speaking,
but as time pass by more teacher intervention is expected.
Materials
• For beginners, lessons may not require the use of materials, as the teacher’s voice, actions and gestures may be
enough.
• Later, the teacher may use common classroom objects such as books, pens, furniture, etc.
• As the course develops, the teacher will need to make supporting materials to support teaching points. E.g.
Pictures, realia, slides, word charts.

Suggestopedia

• Developed by Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian psychiatrist- educator.

• “… a science… concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nonconscious influences”
that human beings are constantly responding to.
• Characteristics of this method: decoration, furniture and arrangement of the classroom, the use of music, and
the authoritative behaviour of the teacher.
• The use of rhythmic breathing to alter states of consciousness and concentration.
• Lozanov claims that his method works equally well whether or not students spend time on outside study.
• One of the three functions of music in therapy defined by Gaston (1968) is “to use the unique potential of
rhythm to energize and bring order…” This is why Lozanov believes that music and musical rhythm is key for
learning.

Approach: Theory of language and learning

• Lozanov does not articulate a theory for language or learning.
• He emphasises on memorization of vocabulary pairs (a target language item and its native language
translation).
• The Suggestopedic course directs “the student not to vocabulary memorization and acquiring habits of
speech, but to acts of communication”.
• Suggestion is at the heart of this theory of learning.
• Lozanov distinguishes his theory from the concept of hypnosis – “… a kind of static, sleeplike, altered state of
consciousness…”. What makes his method different from hypnosis is that it lacks of “a desuggestive-suggestive
sense” and “fail to create a constant set up access to reserves through concentrative psycho-relaxation”.
• There are six principal theoretical components though which desuggestion and suggestion operate and that set up
access to reserves. The next will be described by Bancroft (1972).
1. Authority.
• It is believed that people remember best and are influenced the most by information coming from an
authoritative source.
• Authoritative air to the teacher is conceived by self-confidence, personal distance, acting ability and a highly
positive attitude.
2. Infantilization
• Authority is also used to suggest a teacher-student relation like that of parent to child.
• Child’s role is to take part in role playing, games, songs, and gymnastic exercises that help “the older student
regain the self-confidence, spontaneity and receptivity of the child”.
3. Double-planedness
• Not only does the learner learn from the effect of direct instruction but from the environment in which the
instruction takes place.
• Bright décor of the classroom, musical background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher
play an important role in this method.
4, 5, 6. Intonation, rhythm, and concert pseudo-passiveness.
• Varying the tone and rhythm of presented material helps both to avoid boredom through monotony of
repetition and to dramatize, emotionalize, and give meaning to linguistic material.
• Both intonation and rhythm are coordinated with a musical background.
• The musical background helps to induce a relaxed attitude, which Lozanov refers to as concert pseudo-
passiveness. This state is optimal for learning.
• Anxieties and tensions are relieved and power of concentration for new material is raised.

Objectives
• To deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly.
• It bases its learning claims on students’ mastery of prodigious lists of vocabulary pairs.

Syllabus
• A Suggestopedia course lasts 30 days.
• It consists of 10 units of study.
• Classes are held 4 hours a day, 6 days a week.
• The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying
vocabulary list and grammatical commentary.
• One unit is learnt in three days.
• On the first day of work on a new unit, the teacher discusses the general content of the unit dialogue.
Students receive the printed dialogue with a native language translation in a parallel column. The teacher answers
questions about the dialogue, then dialogue is read a couple of times.
• On the second and third day, students work on the elaboration of the text. Elaboration consists of imitation,
question and answer, reading and so on. The next elaboration consists of students making new combinations
and productions based on the dialogues.

Learning activities
• Imitation.
• Question and answer.
• Role play.
• Listening activities (typically part of the pre-session phase)

Roles
Learners:
• Mental state of the learners is critical to success.
• They must not try to figure it out, manipulate, or study the material presented but must maintain a pseudo-
passive state, in which the material rolls over and through them.
• Students are expected to tolerate and encourage their own infantilization. Which is accomplished by
acknowledging the absolute authority of the teacher.

Teacher:
• To create situations in which the learner is most suggestible.
• To present linguistic material in a way most likely to encourage positive reception and retention by the
learner.

Lozanov lists several expected teachers’ behaviours that contribute to these presentations.
1- Show absolute confidence in the method.
2- Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.
3- Organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process.
4- Maintain a solemn attitude toward the session.
5- Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers.
6- Stress global rather than analytical attitudes toward material.
7- Maintain a modest enthusiasm.

Materials
• Direct support materials: text and tape.
• Indirect support materials: classroom fixtures and music (remember classroom environment is key for
students to feel at ease and progress).
• The environment of the classroom should be bright and cheery, having reclining chairs arranged in a circle
and the music should be baroque largo.
• The text should have emotional force, literary quality, interesting characters.

Whole language
Whole language was created in the 1980s by a group of U.S educators concerned with the teaching of language
arts, that is, reading and writing in the native language (L1).
The teaching of reading and writing in the L1 (also called the teaching of literacy) is a very active educational
initiative worldwide that has led to a number of different approaches and methodologies.
Whole language argues that language should be taught as a “whole”. Whole language instruction is a theory of
language instruction developed to help young children learn to read, and to the teaching of ESL (English as a
second language).
Whole language approach emphasizes learning to read and write naturally with a focus on real communication
and reading and writing for pleasure.
In language teaching, Whole Language shares a philosophical and instructional perspective with Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT) since it emphasizes on the importance of meaning making in teaching and learning.
Whole language also relates to natural approaches to language learning since it is designed to help children and
adults learn an L2 in the same way children learn their L1.

Theory of language
Whole language views language from an international perspective. In this perspective, language functions as a
vehicle for human communication.
Heavy emphasis is placed on “authenticity” on conversation. For example, in mastering the sociolinguistic
signals for apologizing, a Whole Language perspective requires an authentic situation in which one truly needs to
apologize.
Whole language also views language as a vehicle for internal “interaction”, for egocentric speech, for thinking.
We also use language to think.
A Functional model of language is also referred to in Whole language because language is seen as something
that is used for meaningful purposes and to carry out authentic functions
Theory of learning
The learning theory underlying Whole Language is in the humanistic and constructivist schools. Such
characteristics are to focus learner attention and to motivate mastery. Constructivist learning theory holds that
knowledge is constructed, rather than received or discovered. Constructivist learners create meaning, learn by
doing, and work collaboratively in mixed groups on common projects.
Whole Language is said to be authentic, personalized, self-directed, collaborative, and pluralistic

Objetives
• Integration of reading, writing, and other skills (listening and speaking).
• The use of authentic literature rather than “artificial.”
• A focus on real and natural events rather than on specially designed written stories which do not relate to the
students’ experience.
• Reading is conducted for the purpose of comprehension.
• Use of student-produced texts rather than teacher-generated or other-generated texts

Syllabus
• Whole Language instruction advocates the use of real world materials rather than commercial texts.
• Students are selectors of learning materials.
• Choice is vital in a whole language class, because without the ability to select activities, materials, and
conversational partners, the students cannot use language for their own purpose.
• Schools make use of class sets of literature, both fictional and nonfictional.

Learning & Teaching Activities

• Reading for the purpose of comprehension.
• Writing for a real audience and not simply to practice writing skills.
• Writing as a process through which learners explore and discover meaning.
• Integration of reading, writing and other skills.
• Reading and writing in partnership with other learners.

Learner & Teacher Roles

• The teacher is seen as a facilitator.
• The teacher is an active participant in the learning community, and not an expert passing on knowledge to
the students.
• The teacher teaches students, and not the subject matter.
• The teachers creates a climate that enables collaborative learning.
• The learner collaborates with his classmates, and with the teacher (pair work and whole group activities).
• Students are evaluators of their learning process with the help of the teacher.
• The learner is self-directed, his experiences are used as resources to enrich the learning process.

Procedures
• The use of literature.
• The use of process writing (pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, publishing).
• Encouragement of cooperative learning among Ss (pair work and whole group activities).
• Concern for students attitude.
• Individual and small group reading and writing.
• Ungraded (with no grade in class) dialogue journals.
• Writing portfolios.
• Student-made books.
• Story writing.

Conclusions
The Whole Language movement is not a teaching method but an approach to learning that sees language as a
whole entity.
Each language teacher is free to implement the approach according to the needs of particular students and
classes.
Advantages:
Focuses on experiences and activities that are relevant to Ss’ lives and needs, use of authentic materials, it can be
used to facilitate the development of all aspects of an L2. Whole Language promotes fluency at the expense of
accuracy.
Community Language Learning

Community Language Learning (also called Counselling Language Learning) was created by Charles A Curran, a
Jesuit priest and professor of psychology, and Paul La Forge. Inspired by the humanistic psychology of Carl
Rogers, it aimed to remove the anxiety from learning by changing the relationship between the teacher and
student.
1. Learning Theory: CLL advocates a holistic approach to language learning. “True human learning” is both
cognitive and affective. This is termed “whole person learning”. A group of ideas concerning the psychological
requirements for successful and “non-defensive” learning are collected under the acronym (SARD).
S A R D (Security- Attention & Aggression– Retention & Reflection Discrimination)
Security: Students should feel secure to enter into a successful learning experience. Classroom atmosphere,
students’ relations with each other, teacher’s attitude to students all affect students’ feelings of security.
Attention: Attention is the learner’s involvement in learning.
Aggression: is to show what has been learnt for “self-assertion” like a child who tries to show what he/she has
learnt. The child tries to prove the things he/she has learnt.
Retention: If the “whole person” is involved in the learning process, what is retained is internalised and
becomes a part of the learner’s “new persona” in the foreign language. The material should neither be too old
nor be too new or conversely too familiar. Retention will best take place somewhere in between novelty and
familiarity.
Reflection: Students need quiet reflection time in order to learn. The teacher reads the text for three times and
the students relax and listen for reflection. Students also listen to their own voice from the tape for reflection.
Discrimination: Students should discriminate the similarities and the differences among target language forms
by listening to themselves and the teacher carefully. They should also listen to discriminate if what they say is
similar or different from what the teacher says.
CLL combines innovative learning tasks and activities with conventional ones. They include:
1. Translation: The teacher translates what the student try to say and the student repeat it.
2. Group Work: Students work with groups and complete a task that will be presented to the teacher and
the rest of the class.
3. Recording: Students record conversations in the target language.
4. Transcription: Students transcribe the conversations that they have recorded.
5. Analysis: Students analyze transcriptions of target language in order to use them.
6. Reflection and Observation: Learners reflect and report on their experience of the class. This usually
consists of expressions of feelings.
7. Listening: Students listen to the teacher and then they involve elements they might have elicited.
8. Free Conversation: The students are ready to speak with the teacher or others students.

2. Language Theory: Language is for communication. Language is for developing creative thinking. Culture is
integrated with language. The focus shifts from grammar and sentence formation to a “sharing and belonging
between persons“. Language is what you learn and share with others. Students should trust the learning process, the
teacher and the others.
3. Culture: Knowing the target culture is important to be successful in communication. Culture is integrated
with language. Social life style, art, literature, customs, habits should be learnt.
4. Teacher’s Role: T’s initial role is that of a counsellor. The teacher tries to remove the threatening factors in
the classroom. Even the teacher stands behind the students to reduce because the teacher’s superior knowledge
and his existence are also threatening factors.
5. Students’ Role: Initially the learner is dependent on the teacher. As s/he goes on studying the language he
becomes more and more independent.
6. Interactions: Student-student, teacher-student interactions occur in the classroom. In addition, group work,
and pair work tasks are carried out by students. Usually the teacher physically removes himself/herself from the
circle in order to increase student-student interactions.
7. Vocabulary Teaching: Literal native language equivalents are given to the target language in order to teach
their meanings. This makes meaning clear.
8. Grammar Teaching: Large chunks are analysed by means of equivalents in L1. It can be explicit when
necessary.
9. Materials: A textbook is not considered necessary. Materials may be developed by the teacher as the course
develops. Materials depend on students’ needs. Conversations are generated by the students depending on what
they want to say in the target language.
10. Syllabus: CLL does not use a conversational language syllabus, which sets out in advance the grammar,
vocabulary, and other language items to be taught and the order in which they will be covered. Syllabus is
developed in terms of students’ communication needs.
11. Role of L1: Students’ security is initially enhanced by using their native language. Where possible, literal
native language equivalents are given to the target language words that have been transcribed. This makes their
meaning clear and allows students to combine the target language words in different ways to create new
sentences. Directions in class, students’ expressions of feelings are in L1. In later steps, more and more L2 is
used.
12. Evaluation: A teacher-made classroom test would be an integrative test rather than a discrete-point test.
Students are asked to write a paragraph or they can be given an oral interview.
13. Goals and Objectives: Students should learn how to use the target language communicatively. Students
should learn about their own learning to take an increasing responsibility about it. Non-defensive learning is the
result when the teacher and the students treat each other as a whole person.
14. Error Correction: The error is treated in a non-threatening way. The teacher repeats the correct form
without calling further attention to the error and the owner of the error.
15. Student’s Feelings: Students’ feelings are considered extremely important. One regular activity is getting
feedback from students’ about their feelings; how they feeling about learning a foreign language. Negative
feelings may block students’ learning. Security is basic. Clear instructions, enough time, should be given to the
individual for the respond.
16. Skills: In the early stages, students design the syllabus. They decide what they want to say in L2. The most
important skills are: listening, comprehension and speaking. Reading and writing are also worked on.