DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES:

Techniques and Materials

Indawan Syahri 1

TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

How teachers can best facilitate leaning process Dynamic approach How old are the learners?

How proficient are they?

How learners learn Principled Teaching Contexts of Learning What are their goals?

What are the effects of sociopolitical factors Designing & Implementing Techniques in Classroom 2

TECHNIQUES REDIFINED

1. TASK – Task refers to a specialized form of technique or a series of techniques, closely allied with communicative curricula.

– Task-based learning is not a new method, it simply puts task at the center of one’s methodological focus.

– It views that the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly link to the curricular goals they serve, and the purposes of which extend beyond the practice of language for its own sake.

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Task-based Learning

Task-based learning is a perspective that you can take within a CLT in terms of a number of important pedagogical purposes: – Do they ultimately point learners beyond the forms of language alone to real-world contexts?

– Do they specially contribute to communicative goals?

– Are there elements carefully designed and not simply haphazardly or idiosyncratically thrown together?

– Are their objectives well specified so that you can at some later point accurately determine the success of one technique over another?

– Do they engage learners in some form of genuine problem-solving activity?

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2. ACTIVITY

• An activity may refer to virtually anything that learners actually do in the classroom • Because an activity implies some sort of active performance on the part of learners, it is generally not used to refer to certain teacher behaviors.

• What are done by teachers are called techniques. 5

3. PROCEDURE

• Procedures refer to the actual moment to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that operate in teaching a language according to particular method.

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4. TECHNIQUE

• Technique as a superordinate term refers to various activities that either teachers or learners performs in the classroom.

• Techniques include all tasks and activities.

• Techniques are almost always planned and deliberate.

• Techniques are the product of choice made by the teacher. 7

Categorizing Techniques

(1) 1. From manipulation to communication – Techniques can be thought of as a continuum of possibilities between highly manipulative and very communicative in their natures Highly manipulative Very communicative 8

Categorizing Techniques

(2) 2. Controlled to free techniques

Controlled

Teacher-centered Manipulative Structured Predicted student responses Pre-planned objectives Set curriculum

Free

Student-centered Communicative Open-ended Unpredicted responses Negotiated objectives Cooperative curriculum Also see pp. 142-143 9

Categorizing Techniques

(3) 3. Drills (m echanical, meaningful, and communicative drills) – A drill may be defined as a technique that focuses on a minimal number (usually one or two) of language forms (grammatical or phonological structures) through some types of repetition.

– Drills are commonly done chorally (the whole class repeating in unison) or individually.

– Drills can take the forms of simple repetition drills, substitution drills, moving slot substitution drills.

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Types of Drills

(1) 1. Mechanical drills – Mechanical drills have only one correct response from a student, and have no implied connection with reality.

– E.g., repetition drills simply require that the students repeat a word or phrase whether the students understand it or not.

T: The cat is in the hat.

Ss: The cat is in the hat .

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Types of Drills

(2) • Substitution drills T: Ss: T: Ss: I went to the store yesterday. I went to the store yesterday.

Bank I went to the

bank

yesterday. T: the hospital Ss: I went to the

hospital

yesterday • Slot substitution drills T: Ss: T: Ss: I went to the store yesterday.

I went to the store yesterday Bank I went to the

bank

yesterday T: Ss: He

He

went to the bank yesterday 12

3.

Types of Drills

(3) 2. A meaningful drill may have a predicted response or a limited set of possible responses, but it is connected to some form of reality.

T: S1: T: S2: T: The woman is outside. [pointing out the window at a woman] The woman is outside.

Right, she’s outside. Keiko, where is she?

She’s outside.

Good, Keiko, she’s outside. Now, class, we are inside. Horoko, where are we?

S3: We are inside .

A communicative drill is oxymoron. If the exercise is communicative, i.e., to offer the student the possibility of an open response and negotiation of meaning, then it is surely no longer a drill, so the so-called

quasi

-communicative practices.

T: Mary: Good morning, class. Yesterday, I went to market to buy stationeries. Mary what did you do yesterday?

I went to see my friend in hospital. 13

Highly manipulative Controlled techniques Mechanical drill

Continuum Lines

Very communicative Free technique Semi controlled techniques Meaningful drills Quasi communicative practices 14

Thank you

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