Transcript LING 306 TEFL METHODOLOGY

LING 306
TEFL METHODOLOGY
CONTENT BASED
TASK BASED
&
PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES
CONTENT-BASED, TASK-BASED, AND
PARTICIPATORY APPROACHES
1
2
• giving priority to process over predetermined linguistic
content
• Students ‘use English to learn it’, rather than ‘learning to use
English; teaching through communication, rather than for it
• Difference – their focus
3
CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION
 For years, specialised language courses have included
content relevant to a particular profession or academic
discipline, e.g., for airline pilots, medical practitioners,
lawyers
 It integrates the learning of language with the learning
of some other content, often academic subject matter –
academic subjects provide natural content for language
instruction
 Motivated “language across the curriculum”
movement for native speakers in England
 Snow (1991) referred the approach as “a method with
many faces”
CONTENT-BASED APPROACH - MODELS
 LANGUAGE IMMERSION PROGRAM
 ADJUNCT MODEL
 SHELTERED INSTRUCTION
 COMPETENCY-BASED INSTRUCTION
CONTENT BASED APPROACH
 In a second language environment, it offers the
significant advantage that second language
students do not have to postpone their academic
study until their language reaches a high level
 Competency-based instruction – an effective form
of content-based instruction for adult immigrants –
offers an opportunity to develop their language
skills and vital ‘life-coping’ skills
CONTENT-BASED APPROACH PHILOSOPHY
 Uses the WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH –
calls for language to be regarded holistically
rather than by pieces
 Claims that students learn best when they are
working to understand the meaning of the whole
text
 Work from top-down – understand the overall
text before work on the linguistics forms
CONTENT-BASED APPROACH PHILOSOPHY
 Whole language educators provide content-rich
curriculum where language and thinking can be
about interesting and significant content
(Edelsky, Altweger, and Flores 1991)
 Errors are seen as part of learning process
 Embraces Vygotsky’s idea about social nature of
learning – learning is best served by collaboration
between teacher and students and among
students
CONTENT-BASED APPROACH
GOALS OF TEACHERS
give priority to process over
predetermined linguistic
content
ROLES OF TEACHERS
Assist learners in understanding
subject matter
ROLES OF STUDENTS
Study academic subject matters
and learn a foreign language
CHARACTERISTICS OF
TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS
Integrates the learning of language
with the learning of some content.
Language objectives are dictated
by content. Students are engaged
in purposeful use of language
NATURE OF STUDENTTEACHER/STUDENT-STUDENT
INTERACTION
While completing the academic
tasks all interaction types are
possible
CONTENT-BASED APPROACH
FEELINGS OF STUDENTS
No principles
VIEWS OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Since the purpose is content, it is
easier to master the target
language
LANGUAGE AREAS
Dictated by texts that are used for
content
LANGUAGE SKILLS
All 4 skills
ROLE OF STUDENTS’ NATIVE
LANGUAGE
No role for native language
EVALUATION
Evaluated for the content
TASK-BASED APPROACH
 A task-based approach aims to provide learners
with a natural context for language use
 As learners work to complete a task, they have
abundant opportunity to interact
 Learning can be facilitated by the interaction in which
learners work to correctly understand others and make
themselves understood
 Learners will have opportunity to acquire language that
beyond their current level and use them later
TASK-BASED APPROACH
 Prabhu (1987) identified 3 types of tasks: an
information-gap activity, an opinion-gap activity,
and a reasoning-gap activity (p. 148)
 An information-gap activity involves the exchange of
information among participants in order to complete a task
 An opinion-gap activity requires that students give their
personal preferences, feelings, or attitudes in order to
complete a task
 A reasoning-gap activity requires students to derive some
new information by inferring it from information they have
been given
TASK-BASED APPROACH
 Prabhu feels that reasoning-gap tasks work best:
 Information-gap tasks often require a single step transfer of
information, rather than sustained negotiation
 Opinion-gap tasks tend to be rather open-ended
 Reasoning-gap tasks encourage a more sustained
engagement with meaning, though they are still
characterized by a somewhat predictable use of language
TASK-BASED APPROACH
GOALS OF TEACHERS
Provide learners with a natural
context for language use
ROLES OF TEACHERS
Acts as counselors and consultants
ROLES OF STUDENTS
Learning language both functionally and
linguistically by solving problems with
the help of knowledge that students have
CHARACTERISTICS OF
Tasks practiced in the classroom have
TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS perceived purpose and clear outcome
NATURE OF STUDENTAll interaction types are possible –
TEACHER/STUDENT-STUDENT student-student when completing the
INTERACTION
task, student-teacher when counseling
and consulting
FEELINGS OF STUDENTS
Low anxiety and high motivation are
vital
TASK-BASED APPROACH
VIEWS OF LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE
Linguistic and cultural knowledge
are of great importance
LANGUAGE AREAS
Functional properties of language are
stressed
LANGUAGE SKILLS
All skills
ROLE OF NATIVE LANGUAGE
Without simplifying the target
language only foreign language is used
EVALUATION
No formal tests but through in class
observation and feed back
ERROR CORRECTION
Reformulating and recasting what the
students have said
TECHNIQUES
Information, opinion and reasoning
gap
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
 In some ways the participatory approach is similar
to the content approach -
 It begins with content that is meaningful to the students
 Any forms that are worked upon emerge from that content
 Difference – the nature of the content
 It is not the content of subject matter texts, but rather
content that is based on issues of concern to studen
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH PHILOSOPHY
 What happens in the classroom should be
connected with what happens outside that has
relevance to the students
 Education is most effective when it is experience-centred,
when it relates to students’ real needs
 A goal of the participatory approach is for students to be
evaluating their own learning to increasingly direct it
themselves
 Students are motivated by their personal involvement
 Teachers are co-learners, asking questions of the students,
who are the experts on their own lives
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH PHILOSOPHY
 The curriculum is not a predetermined product, but
the result of an ongoing context-specific problemposing process
 Students can create their own materials, which, in turn, can
become texts for other students
 Focus on linguistic form occurs within a focus on content
 Language skills are taught in service of action for change,
rather than in isolation
 When knowledge is jointly constructed, it becomes a tool to
help students find voice and by finding their voices,
students can act in the world
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
GOALS OF TEACHERS
Expose language learners to the
target language through issues of
concern to students
ROLES OF TEACHERS
Conducts the flow of the lesson
ROLES OF STUDENTS
Active participants
CHARACTERISTICS OF
TEACHING/LEARNING PROCESS
Content is determined by learners’
social, cultural and historical
background
NATURE OF STUDENTTEACHER/STUDENT-STUDENT
INTERACTION
All types can be observed
FEELINGS OF STUDENTS
Motivated by their personal involvement
VIEW OF LANGUAGE AND
CULTURE
Both go hand in hand
PARTICIPATORY APPROACH
LANGUAGE AREAS
Classroom experience and the
outside world should be
connected
LANGUAGE SKILLS
All skills
ROLE OF NATIVE LANGUAGE
No need for mother tongue
EVALUATION
No formal tests but students are
evaluated in ongoing way in the
classroom
ERROR CORRECTION
Self-correction
TECHNIQUES
Discussions, debates, and problems
posed by the teacher