An introduction to some basic concepts in language teaching and traditional perspectives on pedagogy.

1. Facultad de Humanidades
Escuela de Ciencias del Lenguaje
Seminario de Lingüística Aplicada
Language Pedagogy
Prof. Carlos Mayora
November 2014

2. Warm-up
• List some of the activities that typically take
place in a language class?
• What are the stages in a class?
• What is expected from students?

3. The terminology problem

4. Basic definitions
• Method
• Approach
• Procedure
• Technique
• Task

5. Approach
Theory of language and learning underlying a
method.
Richards and Rodgers, 2001
Basic definitions

6. Approach
“A set of assumptions dealing with the nature of
language, learning and teaching.”
H.D. Brown, 2002, p. 9
Basic definitions

7. Approach
“…is something that reflects a certain model of
research paradigm-a theory, if you like.”
Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 5
Basic definitions

8. Approach
Preconceptions, assumptions and theoretical
underpinnings teachers have that determine
what they believe is important for learners to
learn.
J. Brown, 1995
Basic definitions

9. Method
“…an overall plan for systematic presentation of
language based on a selected approach…”
H.D. Brown, 2002, p. 9
Basic definitions

10. Method
“…a specific set of procedures more or less
compatible with an approach…”
Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 9
Basic definitions

11. Basic definitions
Method
“A method is theoretically related to an
approach, is organizationally determined by a
design, and practically realized in procedure.”
Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p. 20

12. Basic definitions
Procedure
“…classrooms techniques and practices which
are consequences of particular approaches and
designs.”
Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p. 19

13. Procedure
“A set of teaching strategies adoptes/adapted by
the teacher in order to accomplish the stated and
unstated, short and long term goals of language
learning and teaching in the classroom.”
Kumaravadivelu, 2006, p. 89
Basic definitions

14. Techniques
“…simply put, are ways of presenting language
to the students”
J. Brown, 1995, p. 14
Basic definitions

15. Basic definitions
Techniques
What actually happens in the classroom. “It is a
particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used
to accomplish an immediate objective”
Anthony, 1963 (cited in Richards and Rodgers,2001, p. 19)

16. Techniques
“a very specific type of learning activity used in
one or more methods”
Celce-Murcia, 2001, p. 9
Basic definitions

17. Task
“…a piece of classroom work which involves
learners in comprehending, manipulating,
producing or interacting in the target language
while their attention is principally focused on
meaning rather than form”
Nunan, 1989, p. 10
Basic definitions

18. Basic definitions
Task
“…a separable element of a lesson that is
primarily geared to practicing language
presented earlier… usually involving students
working with each other, to achieve a specific
objective”
Crookes and Chaudron, 2001, p. 33

19. Task
A task is a workplan, that involves a focus on
meaning and real-world language use, while
engaging also cognitive processes. It might
involve any of the four language skills and has a
clearly defined communicative outcome.
Ellis, 2003, pp. 9-10
Basic definitions

20. Models
Approach
Method
Technique
Anthony, 1962 (cited in Brown, 2002)

21. Models
Method
Approach
Theory of
language
Theory of
learning
Design
Content and
sequence
Role of
learners
Role of
materials
Role of
teachers
Procedure
Techniques
and practices
Richards and Rodgers, 2001

22. Models
Method
Principles
Theoretical
assumptions from
different feeding
disciplines.
Involve also syllabus
design, materials
production and
evaluation.
Procedures
Teaching strategies
Activities and
techniques.
Kumaravadivelu, 2006

23. “Both Anthony and Richard and Rodgers’ articles
created categories that were sequential and
perhaps static steps in the logical development of
sound teaching […] The experiences of many
language teachers are less sequential […] all the
elements of the teaching and learning process
might seem to be happening simultaneously, with
each component interacting with all the others.”
J. Brown, 1995, p.p. 3-4
Criticism to models

24. “The division of labor among the three groups of
people involved in language learning and
teaching operations […] is acceptable to some
extend in a traditional educational system in
which a centrally planned educational agenda
was handed down to the teacher. It is inadequate
in the current pedagogic environment in which
the teacher is increasingly playing, at the local
level, multiple roles…”
Kumaravadivelu, 2006, p.88
Criticism to models

25. Classifying methods
By approach
Structural
Grammar
translation
Audiolingualism
Communicative
CLT
Natural
approach
CBI
TBLT
Humanism
Suggestopedia
Community Language
Broadly based on Richards and Rodgers, 2001 Learning

26. Classifying methods
By focus
Language-centered
Intentionality
Cummulative view of learning
Emphasis on form
Learner-centered
Intentionality
Cummulative view of learning
Emphasis on form and pragmatics
Learning-centered
Incidentality
Non-linear view
of learning
Emphasis on language
Kumaravadivelu, 2006 use

27. An example
Audiolingualism
Kumaravadivelu, 2006
Approach
U.S. structuralism
Behaviorism
Design
Discrete units of the language (grammar,
pronunciation, etc.)
Attain accurate production. Pay attention to form,
not meaning.
Provide correct models of the language, avoid errors, always use the
target language
Samples of the correct language.
Procedure
Mechanic drills
Choral repetition
Listen and repeat

28. References
• Brown, H.D. (2002). English language teaching in the “post-method” era:
Towards better diagnosis, treatment and assessment. . In Richards, J.C. y W.A.
Renandya (Eds.) Methodology in language teaching. An anthology of current
practice (pp. 9-18). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Brown, J.D. (1995). The elements of Language Curriculum: A Systematic
Approach to Program Development. Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
• Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Language teaching approaches: An overview. In
Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language (3rd
ed., pp. 3-11). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
• Crookes, G. and Chaudron, C. (2001). Guidelines for language classroom
instruction. In Celce-Murcia, M. (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign
language (3rd ed., pp. 29-42). Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.

29. References
• Ellis, R. (2003). Task-based language learning and
teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Nunan, D. (1989). Designing tasks for the communicative
classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006) Understanding language
teaching. From method to postmethod. London:
Lawrence Earlbaum Associates Inc.
• Richards, J.C. and Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and
methods in language teaching (2nd edition). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.