Helping Students to Become More Effective Writers

Transcript Helping Students to Become More Effective Writers

Language Teaching Approaches and Methods Dr. Desmond Thomas, International Academy, University of Essex

Why do people learn English?

• Communication with native speakers • Work • Career prospects • Academic study • Travel • Access to information • Access to literature and culture • Prestige?

What do they need to learn? (1)

• Pronunciation of individual sounds • Word and sentence stress • Intonation • Grammar • Vocabulary • Language functions

What do they need to learn? (2)

• Appropriacy in discourse • Structure of discourse • Language varieties And they need to develop: reading, listening, speaking, writing skills

How languages are learned: theories • Behaviourism. "Verbal behaviour" by B.Skinner (1957) • Cognitivism (Innatism) . "Review of Verbal Behaviour" (1959) and "Syntactic Structures" (1957) by N.Chomsky.

• Interactionism (Socio-constructivism) See works by Piaget and Vygotsky.

Which approaches lead to success?

1. The structural approach?

2. The notional-functional approach?

3. The communicative approach?

4. The lexical approach?

5. The task-based approach?

6. An eclectic approach?

Approaches leading to methods

• Grammar-translation (R&R p.3) • The direct method (p.9) • Situational language teaching (p.31) • The audiolingual method (p.44) • Communicative language teaching (p.64) and post-CLT • Alternative methods: TPR, CLL, Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Natural Approach

Characteristics of CLT

• Based on the idea of 4 types of communicative competence (grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic) and therefore ...

• Focus on function rather than form • Focus on linguistic appropriacy • Focus on actual language use

Implications for the CLT classroom • Communicative speaking activities • Communicative writing activities • Use of ‘authentic materials’ • Emphasis on S-S interaction and on learner autonomy • Attitude to error-making changes • Role of the teacher changes