Language Teaching Methodology: Approach, Method, and Technique

Talking about methodology means that we need to know basic concepts related to its development. The development of methodology in foreign language teaching is inevitable since the needs of learner will vary in different settings.  The way teachers deliver information, set some activities, and make evaluations in the classroom are likely to be the key concept which is necessary to defined. Historically, there are three concepts in foreign language teaching that are interesting to discuss. They are approach, method, and technique. These concepts seems to be neglected and interchangeable in practice. However, as for professional teachers, these are really important to consider.

Professor Ag. Bambang Setiyadi, a lecturer from Lampung University and the author of Teaching English as a Foreign Language, explains the notion of approach, method, and technique clearly on his book.  In summary, the differences among them can be seen as follows:

Approach, method and technique are the three terms which are often overlapped in language teaching. People often mention one of them but they refer to another. Even, people tend to use the term "method" for all of the three. Some people think that they refer to the same concept: a procedure of teaching a language. Are the three terms the same or different? Anthony (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 15) attempted to clarify this difference. According to Anthony, the three have hierarchical arrangement. Approach is the level of theories, method is the plan of language teaching which is consistent with the theories, and techniques carry out a method. In other words, the arrangement of the three is that approach is axiomatic, method is procedural and technique is implementational.

#1 Approach
An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language and the nature of language learning and teaching. Approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs about language, language learning and language teaching. Different people may agree with different beliefs and assumptions dealing with the nature of language, learning and teaching. Assumptions or beliefs may be taken for granted. People do not have to come to an agreement about the assumptions. Therefore, in language teaching there are different assumptions about language and language teaching. Commonly, the following assumptions may explain the nature of language.     

* Language is a group of sounds with specific meanings organized by grammatical rules (The Silent Way).
* Language is the everyday spoken utterance of the average person at normal speed (Audio Lingual Method).
* Language is a system for the expression of meaning (Communicative Language Teaching).
* Language is a set of grammatical rules and language consists of language chunks (Total Physical Response).

As mentioned earlier approach also includes assumptions about language learning and language teaching. Assumptions about the nature of language in themselves are not complete and need to be completed by theories about learning or teaching. There are many theories of learning and teaching. Richards and Rodgers (1986: 18) suggest that a learning theory underlying an approach or method responds to two questions: 1) what are the psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in language learning, 2) what are the conditions that need to be met in order for these learning processes to be activated. In general an approach has the answers to the two questions but certain methods may only emphasize one of the two dimensions. From assumptions about language and language learning, a method will be developed. There can be many methods within one approach.      

#2 Method
A method, which is developed based on some assumptions of an approach, includes the whole plan for the presentation of language material. Since the plan is developed based on the same assumptions, no part of the plan contradicts and all parts make a unity. The unity of a method makes the method distinctive. Even though some assumptions of two different methods may derive from the same theories, some other assumptions may be developed from different theories. How little the difference is will make the unity of a method is different from others. There have been many methods that have been introduced in language teaching, to mention some: Audio Lingual Method, the Silent Way, Suggestopedia, Community language Learning, Natural Approach, Total Physical Response and Communicative Language Teaching.  This paper will only address procedures of some of the methods  which may be applicable in the Indonesian context.

Another way of looking at method in language teaching has also been suggested by Richards and Rodgers (1986: 16). They state that at the level of design the objectives of language teaching, language syllabus, content are determined. At the level of design the roles of language teachers, instructional materials are also specified. A method is theoretically related to an approach, organized by the design, and practically realized in procedure. Using Richards and Rodgers' terms, method includes approach, design and procedure. Even though their description of method is different from Anthony's, basically the two are similar, in the sense that a method should include assumptions about language and language learning, and it will be realized in a set of techniques of presenting materials to language learners, which is often called procedure. The difference between methods can be easily observed from their techniques.

#3 Technique
As mentioned earlier, a technique is implementational, meaning that a technique is something that actually takes place in language teaching or learning in the classroom. All activities that take place in a language class are techniques. Techniques are not exclusive to certain methods. To some extent, different methods may have similar techniques even though they must have different techniques. Language teachers may develop their own techniques as long as the techniques are still consistent with the assumptions or theories of the methods from which the techniques derive. Techniques not only include the presentation of language material but also the repetition of the material. Therefore, the position of a technique is at the implementation phase and it is often called procedure while approach and method are at the level of design (Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 16). The following examples of techniques in error corrections can be seen below: 

* The teacher does not praise or criticize do that language learners learn to rely on themselves (The Silent Way).
* The teacher often praise when a student has made a good thing in learning (The Audio Lingual Method).
* When a student has produced a wrong expression, the teacher just repeats the right one (Total Physical Response).
* The teacher does not care when a student makes an error as long as it does not hinder communication (Natural Method).
      

A number of ways of conceptualizing approaches, methods and techniques may have been proposed. Different people may have different ways of conceptualizing them. Understanding how people conceptualize the terms will provide language teachers with a clearer picture of language teaching methods. This understanding may avoid the teachers from misunderstanding the concepts among themselves. Following certain methods, language teachers may be expected to develop their own techniques by considering the underlying principles of the methods. Approaches and methods are relatively permanent but techniques may be adapted to the environment of the language learners and language teachers. The procedure of a method, which comprises a set of techniques, may not be fixed even though the assumptions of an approach and the basic principles of a method are relatively fixed. 

Reference:

Richards, Jack C. and Rodgers, Theodore S. 1986. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Language Teaching Methodology: Task-Based Language Teaching

David Nunan

I am quite sure that people who are reading this post are likely to be aware of the concept of Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT). In order to remind you of this so-called “learner-centered approach”, I will share the idea which I got from David Nunan (born 11 October 1949 in Broken Hill, Australia), an Australian linguist who is well known as an expert on the teaching of English. In his book entitles “Task-Based Language Teaching”, Nunan explained the definition about TBLT through the following quotation:

“The task-based approach (upon which the curriculum is built) aims at providing opportunities for learners to experiment with and explore both spoken and written language through learning activities that are designed to engage learners in the authentic, practical and functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Learners are encouraged to activate and use whatever language they already have in the process of completing a task. The use of tasks will also give a clear and purposeful context for the teaching and learning of grammar and other language features as well as skills. The role of task-based language learning is to stimulate a natural desire in learners to improve their language competence by challenging them to complete meaningful tasks”. (CDC, 1999: 41)

The citation above was a quote from Hong Kong Ministry of Education and this becomes one of the proofs that most countries in Asia-Pacific Region claimed that task-based teaching was a central principle driving their English curricula (Nunan, 2003). In reference to the quotation above, it can be said that TBLT is an approach (which is also in the form of curricula) which offers various “target language tasks” which are worked as a facilitation to build learners’ ability to use the target language.

In order to make it clearer, we can see the following principles for TBLT which is written based on what Nunan established on his book.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES FOR TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING

Principle 1: SCAFFOLDING

• Lessons and materials should provide supporting frameworks within which the learning takes place. At the beginning of the learning process, learners should not be expected to produce language that has not been introduced either explicitly or implicitly •

A basic role for an educator is to provide a supporting framework within which the learning can take place. This is particularly important in the case of analytical approaches such as TBLT in which the learners will encounter holistic ‘chunks’ of language that will often be beyond their current processing capacity. The ‘art’ of TBLT is knowing when to remove the scaffolding. If the scaffolding is removed prematurely, the learning process will ‘collapse’. If it is maintained too long, the learners will not develop the independence required for autonomous language use.

Principle 2: TASK DEPENDENCY

• Within a lesson, one task should grow out of, and build upon, the ones that have gone before. The task dependency principle is illustrated in the instructional sequence above which shows how each task exploits and builds on the one that has gone before •

In a sense, the sequence tells a ‘pedagogical’ story, as learners are led step by step to the point where they are able to carry out the final pedagogical task in the sequence. Within the task-dependency framework, a number of other principles are in operation. One of these is the receptive-to-productive principle. Here, at the beginning of the instructional cycle, learners spend a greater proportion of time engaged in receptive (listening and reading) tasks than in productive (speaking and writing) tasks. Later in the cycle, the proportion changes, and learners spend more time in productive work. The reproductive-to-creative-language principle is also used in developing chains of tasks. This principle is summarized separately below.

Principle 3: RECYCLING

• Recycling language maximizes opportunities for learning and activates the ‘organic’ learning principle •

An analytical approach to pedagogy is based on the assumption that learning is not an all-or-nothing process, which mastery learning is a misconception, and that learning is piecemeal and inherently unstable. If it is accepted that learners will not achieve one hundred per cent mastery the first time they encounter a particular linguistic item, then it follows that they need to be reintroduced to that item over a period of time. This recycling allows learners to encounter target language items in a range of different environments, both linguistic and experiential. In this way they will see how a particular item functions in conjunction with other closely related items in the linguistic ‘jigsaw puzzle’. They will also see how it functions in relation to different content areas. For example, they will come to see how ‘expressing likes and dislikes’ and ‘yes/no questions with do/does’ function in a range of content areas, from the world of entertainment to the world of food.

Principle 4: ACTIVE LEARNING

• Learners learn best by actively using the language they are learning •

A key principle behind this concept is experiential learning. This approach let learners learn best through doing – through actively constructing their own knowledge rather than having it transmitted to them by the teacher. When applied to language teaching, this suggests that most class time should be devoted to opportunities for learners to use the language. These opportunities could be many and varied, from practicing memorized dialogues to completing a table or chart based on some listening input. The key point, however, is that it is the learner, not the teacher, who is doing the work. This is not to suggest that there is no place at all for teacher input, explanation and so on, but that such teacher-focused work should not dominate class time.

Principle 5: INTEGRATION

• Learners should be taught in ways that make clear the relationships between linguistic form, communicative function and semantic meaning •

Until fairly recently, most approaches to language teaching were based on a synthetic approach in which the linguistic elements – the grammatical, lexical and phonological components – were taught separately. This approach was challenged in the 1980s by proponents of early versions of communicative language teaching who argued that a focus on form was unnecessary, and that all learners needed in order to acquire a language were opportunities to communicate in the language. This led to a split between proponents of form-based instruction and proponents of meaning-based instruction, with proponents of meaning-based instruction arguing that, while a mastery of grammar is fundamental to effective communication, an explicit focus on form is unnecessary. More recently, applied linguists working within the framework of systemic-functional linguistics have argued that the challenge for pedagogy is to ‘reintegrate’ formal and functional aspects of language, and that what is needed is a pedagogy that makes explicit to learners the systematic relationships between form, function and meaning.

Principle 6: REPRODUCTION TO CREATION

• Learners should be encouraged to move from reproductive to creative language use •

In reproductive tasks, learners reproduce language models provided by the teacher, the textbook or the tape. These tasks are designed to give learners mastery of form, meaning and function, and are intended to provide a basis for creative tasks. In creative tasks, learners are recombining familiar elements in novel ways. This principle can be deployed not only with students who are at intermediate levels and above but also with beginners if the instructional process is carefully sequenced.

Principle 7: REFLECTION

• Learners should be given opportunities to reflect on what they have learned and how well they are doing •

Becoming a reflective learner is part of learner training where the focus shifts from language content to learning processes. Strictly speaking, learning-how-to-learn does not have a more privileged place in one particular approach to pedagogy than in any other. However, I feel this reflective element has a particular affinity with task-based language teaching. TBLT introduces learners to a broad array of pedagogical undertakings, each of which is underpinned by at least one strategy. Research suggests that learners who are aware of the strategies driving their learning will be better learners. Additionally, for learners who have done most of their learning in ‘traditional’ classrooms, TBLT can be mystifying and even alienating, leading them to ask, ‘Why are we doing this?’ Adding a reflective element to teaching can help learners see the rationale for the new approach.

(For Language Teacher: try to evaluate the materials or textbook you are currently using or one that you are familiar with in terms of the seven principles written in this blog)

REFERENCE

CDC. (1999). Syllabuses for Secondary Schools: English language secondary 1–5. Hong Kong: Curriculum Development Council, Education Department.

Nunan, D. (2003). The impact of English as a global language on educational policies and practices in the Asia-Pacific region. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 4, Winter 2003.

Nunan, David. (2004). Task-Based Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.

PICTURE

http://tesolforum.edublogs.org/files/2010/06/David_Nunan_Photo.jpg

Language Teaching Methodology: Self-Development and Exploration

taken from: www.theguardian.com

It is impossible to develop our national education without developing the quality of the teachers. As the new globalization era has emerged, the new problems in teaching English as a foreign language appear continually to be more difficult and complex. Therefore, one way to overcome this challenge is enhancing teacher quality. Teachers themselves must become the primary shapers of their own development. Several factors affect teacher self-development.

First, there is no doubt that development takes time. It takes time to observe interaction in our own classrooms and to visit each other teachers’ classes, as well as to write in journal and to talk to others about teaching. Pre-service teachers have an advantage in that the time factor is built into the teacher education program. Teachers in in-service programs or those working independently on their development have less time. Nonetheless, teachers do believe that development is important need to make a commitment to devote time to their development.

Second, development requires an ongoing commitment. Development teaching is not something to do only in a teacher education program or at the beginning of a teaching career. Rather, even the most experienced teacher can learn new things about teaching, and development is enhanced when the teacher makes a commitment to ongoing development. For example, a teacher continues to think about creating more learner-centered classroom that engages students in learning to be communicatively competent in English.

Third, development is enhanced through problem solving. When teachers recognize problems and work at solving them, they can discover new ways to teach and discover more about their role as a teacher. For example, a teacher finds out that applying jigsaw technique gets students to use more English in class and he does not know about it before. It indicates that he continues to generate ways to solve perceived problems in his teaching.

Fourth, development is also enhanced through exploration for exploration’s sake. Teachers can, indeed, discover much by exploring simply to explore, not just to solve a problem. Such exploration ca be based on pure interest-for example, trying an approach that is opposite of one you love simply to see what happens, or trying a new approach/technique simply because it sounds interesting.

Fifth, development is enhanced by paying attention to and reviewing the basics of ESL/EFL teaching. An EFL/ESL teacher is supposed to know the basics of ESL/EFL teaching. By doing so, a teacher is supposed to continue to study ways to create opportunities for students to interact in English; ways to manage classroom behaviour; materials and media used to teach EFL. In addition, he undoubtly will consider ways to teach different skills, such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Sixth, development is enhanced by searching out opportunities to develop. For examples, a teacher will turn out that he talks with other teachers about teaching; he reads about teaching; he attends seminars and workshops; and he participates in other activities that give him chances to reflect on his teaching and see new teaching possibilities. Consequently, the more we experience related to teaching, and the more questions and answers we can come up with through this ongoing process, the more chances we develop our teaching beliefs and practices.

The last, self-development of teaching beliefs and practices requires cooperation of others. It takes others who are willing to observe us, listen to us, and talk with us about our teaching. We need administrators, students, other teachers, and friends to help us succeed with our development. Without their cooperation, self-development is very difficult as there is neither any source for feedback nor any stimulus for ideas.

In conclusion, teacher’s commitment to devote themselves to development may be the prominent way to face the new era of language learning and teaching. Hopefully, Indonesian teachers fully realize the importance of self-development and exploration for the brighter future of their nation.

Reference:

Gebhard, Jerry G. (2009). Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language: a teacher self-development and methodology guide (Second Edition). USA: The University of Michigan Press

Language Teaching Methodology: Professional Goals of Language Teachers (review)

One of the most invigorating things about teaching is that we never stop learning. The complexity of the dynamic interaction among teachers, students and subject matter continually gives birth to an endless number of questions to answer, problems to solve, issues to ponder. Every time we walk into a classroom to teach we face some of those issues, and if we are growing teacher, we learn something. We will find out how well a technique works, how a student processes language, how classroom interaction can be improved, how to assess a student’s competence, how emotions enter into learning, or how our teaching styles affects learners. One way to discover them is only by learning on and on for a life time. Consequently, as we step into this profession, we need to know some of our major professional goals (Pennington, 1990: 150 as cited in Brown, 2001: 426) as follows:

1. A knowledge, of the theoretical foundations of language learning and language teaching.
2. The analytical skills necessary for assessing different teaching contexts and classroom conditions.
3. An awareness, of alternative teaching techniques and the ability to put these into practice,
4. The confidence and skill to alter our teaching techniques as needed.
5. Practical experience with different teaching techniques.
6. Informal knowledge of ourselves and our students.
7. Interpersonal communication skills.
8. Attitudes of flexibility and openness to change.

These eight different goals can provide continuing career growth for many, many years as we strive to do a better and better job of teaching. But we must be patient! Don’t expect to become a “master” teacher overnight. Right now as we begin our teaching career, set some realistic and practical goals that we can focus on without being overwhelmed by everything you have to attend to when we teach. Be consistent with what we have set! Good Luck Teachers!

Reference:

Brown, H.Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs:  Prentice Hall.

Teaching Reading: Purposes, Principles, and Activities

taken from: www.bookriot.com

PURPOSES

1. Extensive – reading for pleasure, refers to reading which students do often, away from the classroom – novels, web pages, newspapers, magazines, students should choose what they want to read, be encouraged to read by the teacher, share their reading experiences

2. Intensive – reading texts, study activities, look for meaning, grammar, and vocabulary. (SCAN – find a bit of information – name, phone number, small detail vs SKIM – get a general idea of what the article is about, read for detailed comprehension)

PRINCIPLES

1. Encourage students to read as often and as much as possible.
2. Students need to be engaged with what they are reading.
3. Encourage students to respond to the content of a text (and explore their feelings about it), not just concentrate on its construction.
4. Prediction is a major factor in reading. (book covers, photographs, headlines, web page banner) 
5. Match the task to the topic when using intensive reading texts – the activity is important!
   *For preparation – brainstorm, discuss visuals, headlines, phrases, students predict;
   *For Skimming – identify main ideas, match subtitles with paragraphs, create titles or headlines;
   *For Scanning – pre-set questions, chart filling, lists of elements for students to find;  
   *For intensive – vocabulary, answer detailed questions, answer inferential questions.
6. Exploit reading texts to the fullest extent … activities, feedback, further tasks!

ACTIVITIES

1. Guided reading – teacher supports students to become better readers. The teacher provides support for small groups of readers as they learn to use various reading strategies (context clues, letter and sound relationships, word structure, and so forth). How?

    a. Students should be divided into small groups (4-6 students). The younger the student, the
        smaller the group.
    b. Guided reading lessons are to be about 15-20 minutes in duration.
    c. Appropriately leveled reading materials must be selected for the group and each student should
        have his/her own copy of the literature.
    d. Pre-Reading: The teacher establishes a purpose for reading through making predictions,
        vocabulary introduction, or discussing ideas that will provide the readers with the background
        knowledge required for the text.   
    e. Reading: The teacher observes the students as they read the text softly or silently to themselves,
        provides guidance and coaching to individuals based on her/his observations by providing
        prompts, asking questions, and encouraging attempts at reading strategy application.
    f. Post Reading: The teacher asks questions to ensure that the text has been comprehended by the
        readers and praises their efforts. Further, the teacher may observe gaps in strategy application
        and address these gaps following the reading in a mini-lesson format.

2. Jigsaw reading – students read different texts and share what they have found out.

3. Reading puzzles – reassembling text, out of sequence stories or dialogs, mix up two stories.

4. Newspapers – match articles with headlines or pictures, reading for opinion, read ads, reply to the letters written to the editor.

5. Fishbowl fun – students write questions about a story they’ve read on a small slip of paper, drop it in a bowl, let students fish for questions from the bowl and attempt to answer them.

6. Following instructions – put instructions in the right order, follow recipes.

7. Poetry – reassemble poems, find similarities and differences in poems, leave blanks in poems for students to fill in
 
8. Play extracts – read and act – thinking about how lines are said, concentrating on stress, intonation, speed
 
9. Predicting from words and pictures – given a number of words, students predict what the story tells then compare with the original text or given phrases – write the story or given pictures … do the same.
 
10. Different responses – answer comprehension questions, T/F, find words, put information into graphs, tables, diagrams, describe the people in the text, guess the endings of stories
 
11. Reading Activities Center - song and poetry cards, big books, other book type reading materials are at a centre so that students may browse and read as time permits.
 
12. Write the Room - students copy any print they see anywhere in the room, even if they can't read everything they write. Beginning writers draw pictures to help them remember the words.
 
13. Read the Room - reading anything that is posted in the room
 
14. Rainbow Spelling - Post the week's spelling words on a half sheet of chart paper, students write them 3 times each with colored pencils
 
15. Spelling Activity Center - using their word lists create tongues twisters, sentences, stories, word scrambles
 
16. Stamp a Word - take a tub with rubber alphabet stamps, stamp pads, and large sheets of paper to a work area and stamp any words they want to stamp (use potatoes as the stamp)
 
17. Book Bins - independent, silent, or small group reading
 
18. Star Authors - A place to read student created work
 
19. Listening Centers - Record the books you read to the class. Have parents help out - have students record for others. How nice to hear your friend, mom, dad, sister or brother read a story at center time!
 
20. Word Wall – place a list of common words on a wall, each week add vocabulary or have students add words
 
21. Making Words Centers - Throughout the week students can go up to a pocket chart when they have a few minutes and try to make words out of the scrambled Mystery Word. On Fridays - students share all of the words that they came up with and decode the mystery word. It's a great activity for your average and high students.
 
22. Bookmaking Center -place numerous materials in a basket (writing utensils, colored pens, markers, crayons, stickers, etc.), a tablet of story paper and a stapler. Encourage students to make books about topics that interest them.
 
23. Overhead Journals - Have one student write their journal entry on the overhead. The student reads the journal and gives the class permission to edit the entry. The student gets to correct the errors and the class rereads it out loud.
 
24. Puzzle Center - Find copies of appropriate word searches, laminate them, and let the students write on them with washable markers. When done, they use towels to clean them off.
 
25. Making Greeting Cards - have samples of greeting card verses, titles, etc - cut them up for students to refer to for ideas. Add anything from yarn, wiggly eyes, letter and picture stencils, etc....Encourage students to make cards for their family, teachers around the building, and students within the room.
 
26. Game Center - think word games - Scrabble, Story Scramble, Silly Sentences (cards)
 
27. Computer Center - reading of living books or student created e-books
 
28. Message Centers/Student Post Office - for writing to each other on special occasions
 
29. Dramatic Play – have students act out very simple plays - need costumes & props, give students mood cards (jealousy, silliness, fear) and have them make up a short skit or play of their own
 
30. Word Hunt - kids get a letter or digraph and see how many words they can find that start with or contain it.
 
31. Browsing Box - Take interesting writing and place in a box. Have a special privilege for a student to choose from the box and read to the entire class.
 
32. Literature Circle - A group of students will read a literature selection together and discuss their favourite part. Once they are comfortable with this process, they can map the story on large chart paper, make puppets and put on a play for the class, etc. This allows children to own literature.
 
33. Buddy Reading - The students can read with a partner, this can be familiar or unfamiliar texts. Then they work with their buddy to draw or write about their favourite part.  

34. Journal Writing - Give students content related pictures or journal prompts.
 
35. Absurd Sentences – read absurd sentences to students and have them make the corrections (The room was hot, so Jim decided to open a football. For our vacation we drove across the country in a wastebasket.)
 
36. Hidden clues – read sentences and find the hidden clues or inferences (Mr. Dobbs took the rake from the cellar and walked out to the lawn. What time of year was this? John came in from the barn and took off his dirty chaps. Where does John live?
 
37. Reactions – read sentences and have students write down how they would feel if this happened to them. (Tony spent hours building a snowman on the front lawn. When he went inside, a big branch broke and fell on the snowman, smashing it to pieces.)
 
38. Comics – cut off the last frame in a cartoon, have students draw or write to complete what they think happened
 
39. What if it happened?– read sentences to students and have them decide how they would feel …. e.g., If they heard a strange sound in the night I ... or If I received something I wanted for my birthday or If I tried and tried to do something and couldn’t.
 
40. Zodiac signs – have students read their horoscope, discuss their qualities and characteristics, decide on the sign of a character in the book you are reading, surmise about others.

How to Teach English?

There are various methods or techniques that are applicable in English language teaching. Here, the following methods are mostly used by teachers. Let us review them briefly!

1. Grammar-translation method – present students with short grammar rules and word lists and then translation exercises in which they make use of the rules. It teaches people about language but doesn’t really help them to communicate effectively with it.

2. Direct Method – while teaching, no use of the mother tongue is permitted (the teacher does not need to know the students’ native language). Actions and pictures are used to make meanings clear. Grammar and target culture is learned inductively. Literary texts are read for pleasure and are not analyzed grammatically. More importantly, the teacher must be a native speaker or have a native-like proficiency in the target language.

3. Audiolingualism – describe the grammatical patterns of English to students, have them repeat and learn them. Habit-forming behaviourist approach – perform the correct response to a stimulus so that a reward is given. Drilling (choral and individual repetition and cue-response drilling) is still considered useful – especially with low-level students.

4. Total Physical Response – before teaching speaking, student should learn much vocabulary earlier. In this case, students learn vocabulary through observing actions (performed by teacher) as well as performing the actions themselves. To teach the words “walk” and “run”, teacher should explain them through actions so that students can differentiate both of the words. This methods are suitable for young learners.

5. PPP – Presentation, Practice and Production – the teacher presents the context and situation for the language (describe someone’s holiday plans) and both explains and demonstrates the meaning and form of the new language (eg. “Going to” …. He’s going to visit the Hermitage Museum.) Students then practice sentences with “Going to” … This is called controlled practice. Teachers can use drilling to teach pronunciation and allow students to speak more freely about themselves, e.g… next week I am going to ….

6. CLT – Communicative Language Teaching – involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing, disagreeing, suggesting, etc. Teaches appropriacy when talking and writing to people (formal, informal, tentative, technical, etc.) This method assumes that if students get enough exposure to language and opportunities for language use and if they are motivated then language learning will happen! Focus on allowing students to communicate real message and engage in communicative activities where they use all and any language they know to communicate.

7. TBL - Task-Based Learning – emphasizes tasks rather than the language. Students perform real-life tasks such as timetables, schedules, presentations. Students are given a pre-task (introduced to the topic), which is followed by a task cycles (students plan the task, gather language and information) and produce an outcome (writing, oral performance, etc.)

Which method is best? Use a combination of all! Depends on the situation. Depends on the level of student!.

References:
Harmer, Jeremy. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Malaysia: Pearson Education Limited

Murcia, Marianne-Celce. (2001). Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language (third edition). Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang. (2006). Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu.

Affective Factors in Language Learning

After discussing the importance of character in learning, it is crucial to understand the most fundamental side of human behavior that is affective factor. Some considerable factors such as attitude, interest and motivation, anxiety, self-efficacy, and independency in language learning will be described briefly.

the first term which is important to consider is attitude. Attitude brings numerous definitions according to many references. Consequently, these might lead to the various focus and instrument concerning this field of study. Attitude might refer to the base part of motivation (Gardner and Lambert, 1972:134). Meanwhile, Cook (1969) defined attitude, value, and personality shape “motive constructions” which determine human behavior. Attitude is considered important language learning,  particularly in second language acquisition. From this perspective, it may result that learners who have positive attitude towards second language may have a better progress in mastering the language rather than those who posses the negative one.

Besides, motivation bears different meaning from attitude. Motivation is often defined as “something which trigger individuals”. Motivation is one of important factors in language learning since in learning, motivation might refer to the energy that arouses a student to learn and that gives direction or focus to learning (Seifert, 1999). Moreover, in relation to the learning process, Wlodkowski (1986: 12-13) established that motivation sequences an order which may be illustrated as follows: “the student who possesses an ability to act (energy) makes a choice (volition) which leads to the certain purposes (direction) and if this process lasts longer (involvement), he will get an attainment (completion).

Another factor which is reasonable to consider is anxiety. The construct of anxiety plays a major role in second language acquisition. Anxiety is the subjective feeling of worry, nervousness, and self-doubt in associated with inadequate capacity to know the result of a phenomenon. For instances, the students are sometimes very anxious when they are asked to read a poem in front of the classroom since they will get embarrassed due to their inability to play an intonation well. This temporary feeling is called state anxiety because it happens in particular event or phenomenon. Meanwhile, there is a case where the students always feel anxious to face the normal situation of learning. This permanent predisposition is called trait anxiety. It is important for teachers to try to determine whether a student’s anxiety stems from a global trait or whether it comes from a particular situation at the moment.

Furthermore, self-efficacy refers to the concept where a person feels he or she is capable of doing certain  tasks or achieving results suitable with what it is expected. In relation to the language learning, a belief of capability is very specific. For examples, a students feels he is capable to read heroic poem in front of the class or he feels he is able to write a formal letter in writing competition. Therefore, it is assumed that a learner who feels he or she is capable of carrying out a given task with an appropriate degree of effort may be devoted to achieving success. Conversely, a learner with low self-efficacy may quite easily attribute failure in learning process.

In addition, the last affective factor to consider in language learning is independency. An independency in learning might refer to personal capabilities that enable students to be independent learners and develop a core of resiliency (Alderman, 1999). In relation to the motivation, the student tends to be motivated intrinsically if he or she believes he has a choice and independency to make a decision (Corno and Rohrkemper, 1985; Decy, 1992; Deci and Ryan, 1992). In other words, the student who does not have independency are less motivated and creative.

Reference:

Suherdi, Didi. (2012). Rekonstruksi Pendidikan Bahasa: Sebuah Keniscayaan bagi Keunggulan Bangsa. Bandung: Celtics Press