Notas de Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Jack Richards and Rogers.

Tener una base en “applied linguistic theory”

Within each chapter, our aim has been to present an objective and comprehensive picture
of a particular approach or method… The book is not intended to popularize or promote particular
approaches or methods, nor is it an attempt to train teachers in the use of the different methods
described. Rather it is designed to give the teacher or teacher trainee a straightforward
introduction to commonly used and less commonly used methods and a set of criteria by which to
critically read, question, and observe methods.

Descriptive framework: describes approaches and methods according to their underlying theories
of language and language learning; the learning objectives; the syllabus model used; the roles of
teachers, learners, and materials within the method or approach; and the classroom procedures
and techniques that the method uses.

Chapter 1.

This chapter, in briefly reviewing the history of language teaching methods, provides a background
for discussion of contemporary methods and suggests the issues we will refer to in analyzing these
methods.

It has been estimated that some sixty percent of today’s population is multilingual.

Children entering “grammar school” in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in
England were initially given a rigorous introduction to Latin grammar, which was taught through
rote learning of grammar rules, study of declensions and conjugations, translation, and practice in
writing sample sentences, sometimes with the use of parallel bilingual texts and dialogue.

A typical textbook in the mid-nineteenth century thus consisted of chapters or lessons organized
around grammar points. Each grammar point was listed, rules on its use were explained, and it
was illustrated by sample sentences.

The Grammar Translation Method

First known in the United States as the Prussian Method.

It may be true to say that the Grammar-Translation Method is still widely practiced, it has no
advocates. It is a method for which there is no theory.

Language teaching innovations in the nineteenth century

In the mid –and late nineteenth century opposition in the Grammar Translation Method gradually
developed in several European countries. This Reform Movement, as it is referred to, laid the
foundations for the development of new ways of teaching languages and raised controversies that
have continued to the present day.

Educators recognized the need for speaking proficiency rather than reading
comprehension, grammar, or literary appreciation as the goal for foreign language programs;
there was an interest in how children learn languages, which prompted attempts to develop
teaching principles from observation of (or more typically, reflections about) child language
learning. But the ideas and methods or Marcel, Prendergast, Gouin, and other innovators were
developed outside the context of established circles of education and hence lacked the means for
wider dissemination, acceptance, and implementation…. This began to change towards the end of
the nineteenth century, however, when a more concerted effort arose in which the interests of
reform-minded language teachers, and linguistics, coincided… This effort became known as the
Reform Mouvement.

The Reform Movement

From the 1880s, however, practically minded linguistics like Henry Sweet in England, Wilhelm
Viêtor in Germany, and Paul Passy in France began to provide intellectual leadership needed to
give reformist ideas greater credibility and acceptance. The discipline of linguistics was revitalized.
Phonetics –the scientific analysis and description of the sound systems of languages –was
established, giving new insights into speech processes. Linguistics emphasized that speech, rather
than the written word, was the primary form of language.

 Check Principles

These principles provided the theoretical foundations for a principled approach to language
teaching, one based on a scientific approach to the study of language and of language learning.
They reflect the beginnings of the discipline of applied linguistics –that branch of language study
concerned with the scientific study of second and foreign language teaching and learning.

Method: widely recognized and uniformly implemented design for teaching a language.

But parallel to the ideas put forward by members of the Reform Movement was an interest in
developing principles for language teaching out of naturalistic principles of language learning, such
as are seen in first language acquisition. This led to what have been termed natural methods and
ultimately led to the development of what came to be known as the Direct Method.

The Direct Method

Among those who tried to apply natural principles to language classes in the nineteenth century
was L. Sauveur (1826-1907), who used intensive oral interactions in the target language,
employing questions as a way of presenting and eliciting language. He opened a school in Boston
in the late 1860s, and his method became referred to as the Natural Method.

Sauveur and other believers in the Natural Method argued that foreign language could be taught
without translation or the use of the learner’s native tongue if meaning was conveyed directly
throughout demonstration and action…psychological principles of direct association between
forms and meanings in the target language…theoretical justification for a monolingual approach to
teaching… Rather than using analytical procedures that focus on explanation of grammar rules in
classroom teaching, teachers must encourage direct and spontaneous use of the foreign language
in the classroom. Learners would then be able to induce rules of grammar. The teacher replaced
the textbook in the early stages of learning. Peaking began with systematic attention to
pronunciation. Known words could be used to teach new vocabulary, using mime, demonstration,
and pictures.

Principles and Procedures:

1. Classroom instruction was conducted exclusively in the target language.

2. Only everyday vocabulary and sentences were taught.
3. Oral communication skills were build up in a carefully graded progression organized
around question-and-answer exchanges between teachers and students in small, intensive
classes.
4. Grammar was taught inductively.
5. New teaching points were introduced orally.
6. Concrete vocabulary was taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures; abstract
vocabulary was taught by association of ideas.
7. Both speech and listening comprehension were taught.
8. Correct pronunciation and grammar were emphasized.

The Direct Method was quite successful in private language schools … but despite pressure from
proponents of the method, it was difficult to implement in public secondary school education. It
overemphasized and distorted the similarities between naturalistic first language learning and
classroom foreign language learning and failed to consider the practical realities of the classroom.
In addition it lacked a rigorous basis in applied linguistic theory… It was largely dependent on the
teacher’s skill, rather than on a textbook, and not all teachers were proficient enough in the
foreign language to adhere to the principles of the method. Critics pointed out that strict
adherence to Direct Method principles was often counterproductive, since teachers were required
to go to great lengths to avoid using the native tongue, when sometimes a simple brief
explanation in the student’s native tongue would have been a more efficient route to
comprehension.

Sweet and other applied linguistics argued for the development of sound methodological
principles that could serve as the basis for teaching techniques. In the 1920s and 1930s applied
linguistics systematized the principles proposed earlier by the Reform Movement and so laid the
foundations for what developed into the British approach to teaching English as a foreign
language. Subsequent developments led to Audiolingualism in the United States and the Oral
Approach or Situational Language Teaching in Britain.

Some of the questions that prompted innovations and new directions in language teaching in the
past:
 1. What should the goals of language teaching be? Should a language course try to teach
conversational proficiency, reading, translation, or some other skill?
2. What is the basic nature of language, and how will this affect teaching methods?
3. What are the principles for the selection of language content in language teaching?
4. What principles of organization, sequencing, and presentation best facilitate learning?
5. What should the role of the native language be?
6. What processes do learners use in mastering a language, and can these be incorporated
into a method?
7. What teaching techniques and activities work best and under what circumstances?

CHAPTER 2: The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching.

Edward Anthony in 1963… identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he
termed approach, method, and technique.

“…techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach…

…An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and
learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught…

…Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which
contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach, there can be many methods…

…A technique is implementational –that which actually takes place in a classroom. It is a particular

trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be
consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.

According to Anthony’s model, approach is the level in which assumptions and beliefs about
language and language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory is put into
practice and at which choices are made about the particular skills to be taught, the content to be
taught, and the order in which the content will be presented; technique is the level at which
classroom procedures are described.

Approach

Following Anthony, approach refers to theories about the nature of language and language
learning that serve as the source of practices and principles in language teaching.

Theory of language

…different theoretical views of language and the nature of language proficiency

Structural view: the view that language is a system of structurally related elements for the coding
of meaning. The target of language learning is seen to be the mastery of elements of this system,
which are generally defined in terms of phonological units, grammatical units (clauses, phrases,
sentences), grammatical operations (adding, shifting, joining, or transforming elements), and
lexical items (function of words and structure words).

Functional view: the view that language is a vehicle for the expression of functional meaning….
This theory emphasizes the semantic and communicative dimension rather than merely the
grammatical characteristics of language, and leads to a specification and organization of language
teaching content by categories of meaning and function rather than by elements of structure and
grammar.

 The communicative movement in language teaching, Chapter 9.

 Wilkin’s Notional Syllabuses
 English for specific purposes (ESP)

Interactional view: It sees language as a vehicle for the realization of interpersonal relations and
for the performance of social transactions between individuals. Language is seen as a tool for the
creation and maintenance of social relations. Areas of inquiry… include interaction analysis,
conversation analysis, and ethnomethodology. Interactional theories focus on the patterns of
moves, acts, negotiation, and interaction found in conversational exchanges. Language teaching
content… may be left unspecified, to be shaped by the inclinations of learners as interactors.

Structural, functional, or interactional models of language… provide the axioms and theoretical
framework that may motivate a particular teaching method… But in themselves they are
incomplete and need to be complemented by theories of language learning.

Theory of language learning

A learning theory underlying an approach or method responds to two questions: a) What are the
psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in language learning? And b) What are the
conditions that need to be met in order for these learning processes to be activated?

Process-oriented theories build on learning processes, such as habit formation, induction,

inferencing, hypothesis testing, and generalization.

Condition-oriented theories emphasize the nature of the human and physical context in which
language learning takes place.

Approach does not specify procedure. Theory does not dictate a particular set of teaching
techniques and activities. What links theory with practice (or approach with procedure) is what we
have called design.

Design

In order for an approach to lead to a method, it is necessary to develop a design for an

instructional system. Design is the level of method analysis in which we consider a) what the
objectives of a method are; b) how language content is selected and organized within the method,
that is, the syllabus model the method incorporates; c) the types of learning tasks and teaching
activities the method advocates; d) the roles of learners; c) the roles of teachers; f) the role of
instructional materials.
Objectives

…the focus of a method… what a method sets out to achieve. The specification of particular
learning objectives… is the product of design, not of approach.

Content choice and organization: the syllabus

All methods thus involve overt or covert decisions concerning the selection of language items…
that are to be used within a course or method.

 Language items: words, sentence patterns, tenses, constructions, functions, topics, etc.

In straightforward terms one makes decisions about what to talk about (subject matter) and how
to talk about it (linguistic matter).

The principles of selection… involve… content issues… as well as the instructional materials that
are used, together with the principles of gradation the method adopts.

The term syllabus, however, is less frequently used in process-based methods, in which
considerations of language content are often secondary-

 Counseling-Learning, for example, has no language syllabus as such. Neither linguistic

matter nor subject matter is specified in advance. Learners select content for themselves
by choosing topics they want to talk about. These are then translated into the target
language and used as the basis for interaction and language practice. You find out what
linguistic content had in fact been generated and practiced during a course organized
according to Counseling-Learning principles, it would be necessary to record the lessons
and later determine what items of language had been covered.

Types of learning and teaching activities

The objectives of a method … are attained... through the organized and direct interaction of
teachers, learners, and materials in the classroom.

Differences among methods at the level of approach manifest themselves in the choice of
different kinds of learning and teaching activities in the classroom.

Different philosophies at the level of approach may be reflected both in the use of different kinds
of activities and in the different uses for particular activity types.

Differences in activity types in methods may also involve different arrangements and groupings of
learners.

Activity types in methods thus include the primary categories of learning and teaching activity the
method advocates, such as dialogue, responding to commands, group problem solving,
information-exchange activities, improvisations, questions and answers, or drills.

Learner roles

The design of an instructional system will be considerably influenced by how learners are
regarded. A method reflects explicit or implicit responses to questions concerning the learners’
contribution to the learning process. This is seen in the types of activities learners carry out, the
degree of control learners have over the content of learning, the patterns of learner grouping
adopted, the degree to which learners influence the learning of others, and the view of the learner
as processor, performer, initiator, problem solver.

 Johnson and Paulston (1976) spell out learner roles in an individualized approach to
language learning:
o Learners plan their own learning program and thus ultimately assume
responsibility for what they do in the classroom.
o Learners monitor and evaluate their own progress.
o Learners are members of a group and learn by interacting with others.
o Learners tutor other learners.
o Learners learn from the teacher, from other students, and from other teaching
sources.
 Counseling-Learning views learners as having roles that change developmentally
 Curran (1976) uses an ontogenetic metaphor to suggest this development. He divides the
developmental process into five stages, extending from total dependency on to teacher in
stage 1 to total independence in stage 5…. Parallel to the growth of a child from embryo to
independent adulthood…

Teacher roles

Learner roles in an instructional system are closely linked to the teacher’s status and function.

Teacher roles are similarly related ultimately both to assumptions about language and language
learning at the level of approach.

Some methods are totally dependent on the teacher as a source of knowledge and direction;
others see the teacher’s role as catalyst, consultant, guide, and model for learning; still others try
to “teacher proof” the instructional system by limiting teacher initiative and by building
instructional content and direction into texts or lesson plans.

Issues related to teacher roles in methods: (a) the type of functions teachers are expected to fulfill,
whether that of practice director, counselor, or model, for example; (b) the degree of control the
teacher has over how learning takes place; (c) the degree to which the teacher is responsible of
determining the content of what is taught; and (d) the interactional patterns that develop
between teachers and learners.

Individualized approaches to learning define roles for the teacher that create specific patterns of
interaction between teachers and learners… These are designed to shift the responsibility for
learning gradually from the teacher to the learner.

 Counseling-Learning sees the teacher’s role as that of psychological counselor, the

effectiveness of the teacher’s role being a measure of counseling skills and attributes –
warmth, sensitivity and acceptance.

The role of the teacher will ultimately reflect both the objectives of the method and the learning
theory on which the method is predicated, since the success of a method may depend on the
degree to which the teacher can provide the content or create the conditions for successful
language learning.

The role of instructional materials

What is specified with respect to objectives, content (the syllabus), learning activities, and learner
and teacher roles suggest the function for materials within the system.

The syllabus defines linguistic content in terms of language elements –structure, topics, notions,
functions –or in some cases in terms of learning tasks. It also defines the goeals for language
learning in temrs of speaking, listening, reading, or writing skills. The instructional materials in
their turn further specify subject matter content, even where no syllabys exists and define or
suggest the intensity of coverage for syllabus items or task require.

Instructional materials also define or imply the day-to-day learning objectives that collectively
constitute the goals of the syllabus. Materials designed on the assumption that leaning is initiated
and monitores by the teacher must meet quite different requirements from those designed for
student self-instruction or for peer tutoring.

Realia: : objects or activities used to relate classroom teaching to the real life especially of peoples
studied.

The role of instructional materials within a method or instructional system will reflect decisions
concerning the primary goal of materials... the form of materials… he relation of materials to toher
sources of input (i.e,. whether they serve as the major source of input or only as a minor
component of it ), and the abilities of teachers…

 Counseling.Learning: The content of a method… is assumed to be a product of the

interests of the learners, since learners generathe tehis own subject matter… On the other
hand, Counseling-Learning acknowledges the need for learner mastery of certain linguistic
mechanics, such as the mastery of vocabulary, grammar, and pronounciation. Counseling-
Learning sees these issues as falling outside the teacher’s central role as counselor. Thus…
has proposed the use of teaching machines and other programmed materials to support
the learning of some of the more mechanical aspects of language so as to free the teacher
to function increasingly as a learning counselor.

Procedure

This encompasses the actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that
operate in teaching a language according to a particular method… how a method realizes its
approach and design in classroom behavior.

Dimensions to a method at the level of procedure:

(a) the use of teaching activities … to present new language and to clarify and demonstrate formal,
communicative, or other aspects of the target language

(b) the ways in which particular teaching activities are used for practicing language
(c) the procedures and techniques used in giving feedback to learners concerning the form or
content of their utterances or sentences.

APROACHES:

Total Physical Response

 A language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; t
attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity.
 James Ashes, professor psychology at San Jse State University, California
 Precedents: developmental psychology, learning theory, and humanistic peagogy, as well
as on language teaching procedures proposed by Harold and Dorothy Palmer (1925)

TPR is linked to the “trace theory” ofmemoryin psychology(Katona 190),which holds that the
more often or the more intensively a memory connection is tace, the stronger the memory
associationwil be nd themore likely it wil be recalled.etracing can be done verbally, (eg. By rote
tepetition) and /or n association with motor activity. Combined tracing activities, suc as verbal
rehearsal accompanied bymotor activity, hence increase the probability of sucessfu recall.

In a developmental sense, Asher ses successful adult second language learning as a parallel
process to child first language acquisition. He claims that speech directed to young children
consists primarily of commands, which children respond to physically before they begin to
produceverbal responses.

Asher shares with the school of humanstic psychology a concern for the role of affective
(emotional) factors in language leaninr. A method that is ndemanding I terms of linguistic
production and tha involves gamelke movements reduces learner stress, he beleves, and creates
a positive mod in the leaner, which facilitates learning.

Comprehension Approach: refers to several different comprehension-based language teaching

proposals, which share the belief that (a) comprehension abilities precede productive skills in
learning a language; (b) the teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are
established; (c) skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills; (d) teaching should
emphasize meaning rather than form; and (e) teaching should minimize learner stress.

Approach:

I. Theory of Language

The labelling and ordering of TPR classroom drill sem to be built on assumptions that owe much to
structuralist or gramarbased vews of language. Ashe state that “most of the ramarical structure of
the target language and hundreds of vocabulary items can be learned from the skillful use of the
imperative by the instructor”(1977:4). He views the verb, and particularly the verb in the
imperative, ascentra linguistic motif around which language use and learning are organized.

Abstractions and Non-abstractions: Asher sees language as being composed of abstractions

andnonabstractions, with nonabstractions being most specifically represented by concrete nouns
and imperative verbs. He believes that learners can acquire a “detailed cognitive map” as well as
“the grammatical structure of a language” without recourse to abstractions.

 Despite Asher’s belief in the central role of comprehension n language learning, he does
not elaborate o the relation between comprehension, production, and communication.

II. Theory of Learning:

Asher’s language learning theories are reminiscent of the views of other behavioral
psychologists. Eg. Arthur Jensen (…) simple stimulusresponse model for language acquisition
and development… Asher still sees a stimulus-response view as providing the learning theory
underlying language teaching pedagogy. Learning Hypotheses:

1. There exists a specific innate bio-program for language learning, which defines an optimal
path for first and second language development. (…)
2. Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in the left-and-right-brain
hemispheres.
3. Stress (an affective filter) intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be
learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning.
1. The Bio Program: (…= Asher sees first and second language learning as parallel processes.
Secon language teaching and learning should reflect the naturalistic processes f first
language learning. … Processes: Children develop listening competence before they
develop the ability to speak … Asher speculates that during this period of listening, the
learner may be making a mental “blueprint” of the language that will make it possible to
produce spoken language later. (b) Children’s ability in listening comprehension is
acquired because children are required to respond physically to spoken language in the
form of parental commands. (c) Once foundation in listening comprehension has been
established, speech evolves naturally and effortlessly out of it.

“A reasonable hypothesis is that the brain and nervous system are biologically programmed to
acquire language… in a particular sequence and in a particular mode. The sequence is listening
before speaking and the mode is to synchronize language with the individual’s bosy” (Asher
1977:4).

2. Brain Laterilization: Drawing on works by Jean Piaget, Asher holds that the child language
learner acquire language through motos movement –a right-hemisphere activity. Right-
hemisphere activities must occur before the left hemisphere can process language for
production.

…3. Reduction of Stress: First language acquisition takes place in a stress-free environment,
according to Asher, whereas the adult language learning environment often causes
considerable stress and anxiety. The key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-
program for language development and thus to recapulate the relaxed and pleasurable
ecperienves that accompany first language learning. By focusing on meaning interpreted
through movement, rather tha on language forms studied in the abstract, the learner is said to
be liberated from self-conscious and stressful situations and is able to devote full energy to
learning.

Design

I. Objectives: teach oral proficiency at a beginning level (…) teach basic speaking skills.
Specific instructional objectives are not elaborated, for these will depend on the
particular needs of the learners. Whatever goals are set, however, must be attainable
through the use of action-based drills in the imperative form.
II. The syllabus: … can be inferred from an analysis of the exercise types employed… This
analysis revelas the use of a sentence-based syllabus, with grammatical and lexical
criteria being primary in selecting teaching items. . Unlike methods that operate from
a grammar based or structural view of the core elements of language, TPR requires
initial attention to meaning rather than to the form of items. Grammar is taught
inductively. Grammar features and vocabulary items are selected not according to
their frequency of need or use in target language situations, but according to the
situations in which they can be used in the classroom and the ease with which they
can be learned.

“If an item is not learned rapidly, this means that the students are not ready for that item.
Withrdaw ir and try again at a future time in the training program” (Asher 1977:42)

- A fixed number of items introducert at a time (12 to 36 in an hour, depending upon the
sice of the group and the stage of training.
- Attention to both the global meaning of language and the finer details of its organization

Communicative Language Learning

Acquisition refers to the uncocnsious development od the target languagesystem as a result of

using the language for real communication.

Learning is the conscious representation of grammatical knowledge hat has resulted from
instruction, and it cannot lead to acquisition. It is the acquired system that we call upon to
create utterances during spontaneous language use.

 Language learning comes about through using language communicatively, rather that
through practicing language skills.
- Stephen Krashen
- Language acquisition theorist
Drilling: repetitive oral practice of a particular target structure
 Community Language Teaching:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx_we_P3Pic

Communicative Language Teaching Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRT-
rsKxn4&list=PL7BlTIDdOgZJhim70umCX0sAJFOtMRnda&index=6

Este libro me parece muy Bueno, y disfruto leerlo. Me gustaría continuar leyéndolo, sobre todo los
capítulos que hablar sobre métodos en los cuales hay mucho énfasis en la libertad del estudiante y
en dinámicas de estudio muy creativas. Communicative Language Teaching, Community Language
Learning.