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Approaches to Language Teaching


              Table 2.1 Basic ELT Terms and Examples
              Basic ELT terms  Description  Example
              Approach     Theories about how  The communicative approach – the communicative
                           language works and  function of language is more important than lan-
                           is learnt.       guage structure.
              Method       The practical realisa-  Objectives: focused on developing skills and on what
                           tion of an approach  learners will be able to do (e.g. present themselves,
                           (objectives, types of  etc.).
                           activities, teacher and  Activities: role-play, information gap tasks, etc.
                           learner roles, kinds of  Teacher-learner roles: teacher as facilitator, active
                           material).       learners.
                                            Materials: authentic materials.
              Procedure    An ordered sequence  Warm-up: activating learners’ knowledge about a
                           of techniques.   topic, giving context and objectives of a task.
                                            Task: learners carry out a task in groups, teacher pro-
                                            vides support.
                                            Feedback: the teacher gives feedback on language
                                            and content.
              Technique    A single activity.  Communicative games, simulations, surveys, etc.




                  understand the general differences between them, especially since they of-
                  ten do not match the terminology used in the area of pedagogical research
                  in other languages.
                    Approach is usually used to refer to the theories about how language is
                  learntandusedandservesasamodeloflanguagecompetence.Itisbasedon
                  the ‘theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve
                  as the source of practices and principles in language teaching’ (Richards &
                  Rogers, 2001, p. 20). For example, the communicative movement in language
                  teaching was based on the assumption that language is a vehicle for express-
                  ing functional meaning. This meant that the communicative function of lan-
                  guage was seen as more important than its grammatical or structural fea-
                  tures. In teaching practice, this opened the door for new methods which in-
                  volved different aspects of teaching a foreign language, such as new types
                  of activities, a different syllabus design, new materials etc.
                    Harmer(2007) describes method asthepracticalrealisation ofan approach.
                  It includes the types of activities typically used, roles of the teacher and
                  learner, kinds of material and syllabus organisation. Methods are charac-
                  terised by specific procedures and techniques. For example, Total Physical
                  Response is a teaching method which attempts to teach a foreign language
                  by connecting speech and physical movement. The typical classroom ac-


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