KEY WORDS

The Principles of Teaching English as a Foreign Language

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

1. Think about learning foreign languages in general. To what extent do learners need other people or books or media to help them learn?

2. Do you think learning a language is different from learning other things? In what ways might it be different? In what ways might it be the same?

3. Who do you think in responsible for learning a foreign language – a teacher or a student?

4. Have you ever thought of principles of teaching English as a foreign language? Principles can be defined as guide to action or major foundation stones for teaching practice. Can you name two, three or more principles?

5. Suppose you are forced to design your own principles. What principles would you design?

CHAPTER OUTLINE

· Communicative Competence

· The Principle of an Integrated Approach

· The Principle of Conscious Approach

· The Principle of Activity

· The Principle of Visualization

· The Principle of Systematic Teaching

· The Principle of Accessibility

· Automaticity

· Meaningful Learning

· The Anticipation of Reward

· The Intrinsic Motivation Principle

· Strategic Investment

· Language Ego

· Self-confidence

· The Principle of Risk-Taking

· The Language-Culture Connection

CHAPTER GOALS

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

1. name and describe sixteen principles of teaching foreign languages

2. explain what the different principles imply

3. explain some possibilities of the principle of automaticity

4. explain how your classroom can reflect the principle of risk-talking

5. Sum up each principle

KEY WORDS

communicative competence; principle; conscious approach; automaticity; meaningful learning; anticipation of reward; intrinsic motivation; language ego; self-confidence; risk-talking; language-culture connection

· Communicative Competence

The aim of teaching English at school is to teach students how to use English for communicative needs. One of the main methodological principles is the Principle of communicative competence. It means that students should be involved in oral and written communication throughout the whole course of learning English. Communicative goals are best achieved by giving due attention to language use and not just usage, to fluency and not just accuracy, to authentic language and contexts. Some classroom implications of this principle:

o try to keep every technique that you do as authentic as possible. Use language that students will actually encounter in real world

o some day your students will no longer be in your classroom. Make sure you are preparing them to be independent learners and manipulators or users of English “out there”

· The Principle of an Integrated Approach

Students do not assimilate sounds, grammar units, lexical items as discrete components of the language, but they acquire them in sentence-patterns, pattern-dialogues related to certain situations. Students should use their skills as interdependent parts of their language experience.

· The Principle of Conscious Approach

Students understand both the form and the content of the material they are to learn. Students are also supposed to be aware of how they should treat the material while performing various exercises. Such an approach to language learning usually contrasts with “mechanical” learning through repetitive drill.

· The Principle of Activity

This principle implies that mastering English is only possible if the student is an active participant in the process of learning. From psychology we know that activity arises under certain conditions. First of all the learner should feel a need to learn the subject (in our case a foreign language). The main sources of activity are motivation, desire and interest.

· The Principle of Visualization

Visualization may be defined as specially organized demonstration of linguistic material of the target language. Since pupils learn a foreign language in artificial conditions and not in real life, as is the case when children acquire their mother tongue, visualization should be extensively used in foreign language teaching.

Visualization implies an extensive use of audio-visual aids and audio-visual materials throughout the whole course of foreign language teaching.

· The Principle of Systematic Teaching

Every work that is not done purely mechanically requires being done systematically. The teaching of English must be systematic and very carefully planned. This means that the whole course and each lesson must be conducted according to a well-thought programme or outline of the lesson.

· The Principle of Accessibility

This principle implies the following: the subject-mutter of the instruction must:

- correspond to the age and mental powers of the learners

- be neither too difficult not too easy for them (the material should be slightly above student’s level)

- be rightly dozed

· Automaticity

Now we will take a look at a set of principles witch is called “cognitive” because the principles relate mainly to mental and intellectual functions.

No one can discuss the success with which children learn foreign languages, especially when they are living in the country where this language is spoken. We attribute children’s success to their tendency to acquire language subconsciously, that is without analyzing the forms of language. They learn the language without thinking about it. This childlike processing is sometimes called automatic processing. So, in order to manage the incredible complexity of language learners must move away from processing language unit by unit, piece by piece, to an automatic processing in which language forms must be on the periphery of attention. This principle may be stated as follows:

Overanalyzing language, thinking too much about its forms and rules impede the graduation to automaticity.

What does this principle say to you as a teacher? Here are some possibilities.

o Make sure that a large proportion of you lessons are focused on the use of language for purposes that are as genuine as a classroom context will permit.

o Automaticity isn’t gained overnight. Teachers need to exercise patience with students as teachers slowly help them to achieve fluency.

· Meaningful Learning

This principle may be stated as follows: meaningful learning will lead toward better long-term retention than rote learning.

In the past rote learning occupied to much of the class hour. Students were drilled and drilled in an attempt to learn language forms. Now we know that drilling easily lends itself to rote learning. Teachers should avoid the following pitfalls of rote learning:

o too much grammar explanation

o too many abstract principles and theories

o too much drilling and memorization

o activities whose purposes are not clear

o activities that do not contribute to accomplishing the goals of the lesson

o techniques that are very mechanical or tricky

· The Anticipation of Reward

This principle might be stated as follows: human beings are universally driven to act or behave by the anticipation of some sort of reward that will ensue as a result of the behavior.

Really, there is virtually nothing that we do that is not inspired and driven by a sense of purpose or goal. The anticipation of reward is the most powerful factor in directing one’s behavior. Some classroom implications of this principle:

o provide verbal praise and encouragement to students as a form of short-term reward

o encourage Ss to reward each other with compliments and supportive action

o display enthusiasm and excitement yourself in the classroom. If you are dull, lifeless, bored and have low energy, you can be almost sure that your pupils will be the same

o try to get students to see the long-term reward in learning English by pointing out the prestige in being able to speak English

· The Intrinsic Motivation Principle

Simply stated, this principle is: the most powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated within the learner.

Teachers can perform a great service to learners and to the learning process by considering what the intrinsic motives of their students are and by carefully designing classroom tasks. The students will perform the task because it is interesting, useful, or challenging, and not because they anticipate some rewards from the teacher.

· Strategic Investment

In the past the language teaching profession largely concerned itself with the “delivery” of language to the student. Teaching methods, textbooks, or grammar rules were considered as the primary factors in successful teaching. Nowadays, teachers are focusing more intently on the role of the learner in the process. The “methods” that the learner uses are as important as the teacher’s methods – or more so. So, this principle is: successful mastery of the foreign language will be due to a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort, and attention to the language.

· Language Ego Principle

This principle is one of the four “affective” principles. The word “affective” means moving or touching the feelings. Simply stated this principle is: as human beings learn to use a foreign language, they also develop a new mode of thinking, feeling and acting – a second identity. The new “language ego” intertwined with the second language, can easily create within the learner a sense of fragility and defensiveness.

Some classroom implications of this principle:

o display a supportive attitude to your students

o consider learners’ language ego states because that will help you to determine:

- who to call on

- when to correct a students speech error

- how much to explain something

- how “tough” you can be with a student

· Self-Confidence

This principle might also be called “I can do it!” principle or the self-esteem principle. At the heart of all learning is the condition that a person believes in his or her own ability to accomplish the task. Simply put, we are talking about the following. The eventual success that learners attain in a task is partially a factor of their belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing the task.

Some classroom applications of this principle are:

o give ample verbal and non-verbal assurances to students

o sequence techniques from easier to more difficult

o sustain self-confidence where it already exists and build it where it doesn’t

· The Principle of Risk-Taking

This principle strikes at the heart of educational philosophy. As a rule teachers do not encourage risk-taking. Instead they encourage correctness and right answers. Most educational research shows the opposite to be more conducive to long-term retention and intrinsic motivation.

This principle means: successful language learners must be willing to become “gamblers” in the game of language, to attempt to produce and to interpret language that is a bit beyond their absolute certainty.

How can you classrooms reflect the Principle of Risk-Taking?

Ø create an atmosphere in the classroom that encourages students to try out language, to venture a response

Ø provide reasonable challenges in your techniques: make them neither too easy nor too hard

Ø return students’ risky attempts with positive affirmation

· The Language-Culture Connection

Language and culture are intertwined. This principle may be summed up this way: whenever you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feelings, and acting.

Classroom implications include carrying out the following:

o discuss cross-cultural differences with your students. Emphasize that no culture is “better” than another

o include among your techniques certain activities or materials that illustrate the connection between language and culture