What Is English Teaching?

Before you read

1. What methods for language teaching have you heard of or experienced? Try to name and
describe three:
a. ________________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________________
2. What does an English teacher need to know and be able to do? Write four skills or areas of
knowledge that you think an English teacher should have:
a. ________________________________________________________________________
b. ________________________________________________________________________
c. ________________________________________________________________________
d. ________________________________________________________________________

Read and learn

How was English teaching viewed in the past?

We will begin answering the question posed in the title of this reading by taking a brief look at language
teaching in the past century or so. Before we can do that, however, we need to establish some
understanding of methodological terminology.

Terminology

The literature on language teaching spans decades and countries and contexts. It is no surprise, then,
that different authors use terms in different ways. Some of the terms used to talk about what happens
in a language classroom include method, methodology, approach, strategy, technique, activity, task . . .
and more. Though there is not 100% agreement on how these terms should be used, there are some
common usages, and we will draw our terminological definitions from those commonalities. We will use
the word approach as the broadest term, identifying a set of beliefs about teaching and learning
languages. An approach results in the selection of certain methods, which are general ways of organizing
what takes place in the classroom. The methods chosen inform the selection of specific techniques used
by the teacher or activities engaged in by the students. These are also sometimes called strategies,
though this word has other uses as well. This hierarchy can be seen as a flow chart progressing from
beliefs to specific classroom events:

APPROACH → METHOD → TECHNIQUE /ACTIVITY/STRATEGY

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To illustrate this model, suppose that a teacher starts with a constructivist approach to language
teaching. That is, she wants her students to actively construct meaning, rather than being spoon-fed
information. From that approach, the teacher then selects group work as a method. From that method,
the teacher chooses a scrambled paragraph activity for students to do during a particular class period. If
we could peek in on such a class, we would see students busily working in groups to piece together
sentences to make paragraphs, and we could surmise that the teacher takes a constructivist approach to
language learning and believes that students learn well through group collaboration.

Two cautions are helpful as we consider the use of teaching terminology. First, some ideas in language
teaching do not neatly fit terminological labels, and it is not necessary to label all new ideas as
approaches, methods, techniques, strategies, or activities. Second, there is considerable diversity in
labels given to classroom ideas. For example, communicative language teaching is often referred to as a
method, but in our definition it would be more appropriately called an approach. Total Physical
Response (TPR), the use of commands and corresponding actions, has been described by its author,
James Asher (1969), as an approach or a method. However, it is often used in classrooms as a technique.
We must keep in mind that it is much more important to understand and know how to use these ideas
in the classroom than it is to belabor categorizing them.

Historical methods

Before the early 1900s, little thought was given to appropriate methods for teaching language. Prior to
that time, language learning in school was not widespread. When foreign languages began to be viewed
as school subjects, language learning was expected to involve considerable amounts of arduous
translation and memorization of grammar rules and vocabulary. These types of activities came to be
known as Grammar Translation (GT). Students gained knowledge about foreign languages, but they did
not acquire skill in using these languages. In the early days of foreign language schooling there was some
pushback to GT. The Direct Method brought in oral language. Teachers and students spoke together in
the target language. Accuracy was paramount, and the native language was virtually banned. The Direct
Method led to the Audiolingual Method (ALM). Oral language was the focal point, and students were
expected to learn through memorized dialogues and incessant drills. ALM capitalized on the birth of
technology, and language labs became a fixture of ALM programs.

In the latter half of the 20th century, as more and more people wanted to use foreign languages for real
communication, new ways of language teaching were sought. For several decades, the search ushered in
new methods, each claiming superiority over its predecessor. We will look at just a few of these here.
Community Language Learning was the “support group” version of language instruction. In it the
learners gather in a circle, and as they try to talk to one another, a teacher circulates, providing words
and structures. Suggestopedia, developed by Georgi Lozanov, was similar in its efforts to take language
learning out of a traditional classroom environment. Lozanov focused on lowering the affective filter
through a comfortable and stress-free environment, and emphasized students’ incidental acquisition of
language.
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The Silent Way, founded by Caleb Gattegno, is probably one of the most unusual of the distinctive
methods. In the Silent Way, teachers say little. Language is elicited from students through elaborate
color-coded sound charts and colorful rods manipulated to represent words and structures. It is still in
use today by those specifically trained in its methodology. TPR, a technique mentioned above, was
developed by James Asher during this time period as well. It remains very popular today as a technique
that is especially well-suited for beginner classes.

During the decades in which these methods were being developed, they were most often envisioned
and viewed as comprehensive methodologies. That is, a teacher would subscribe to one method, and
would conduct classes conscientiously in this way. The fact that many different methods for language
teaching were proposed within a relatively short time period, however, probably helped to emphasize
the point that there was no one best method for language teaching. Various methods achieved success,
and this reality led to a search for commonalities. The common denominator was often that students
were using language for real communication.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

The search for the best method eventually culminated in the emergence of Communicative Language
Teaching, which, though sometimes called a method, is simply an approach to language teaching that
prioritizes real communicative ability. CLT remains the most widely recognized and used “modern”
approach to language teaching. However, CLT is far from standardized. It means different things to
different people, in different places and for different student groups. CLT has sometimes been
embraced as the method of the day in national curricula, without sufficient teacher training or resources
to ensure that teachers can actually teach communicatively. It is probably wise to think of CLT as a
desired approach in many places around the globe, but one that is not implemented as much as is
claimed.

To conclude our discussion of historical methods, it may be useful to realize that, while it might have
been desirable to discover a foolproof way to teach language, our shared knowledge has now taken us
beyond the search for such a method. Brown (2007) states that

We are well aware that methods, as they were conceived of 40 or 50 years ago or so, are too
narrow and too constrictive to apply to a wide range of learners in an enormous number of
situational contexts. There are no instant recipes. No quick and easy method is guaranteed to
provide success. (p. 18)

How is English teaching viewed now?

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According to Kumaravadivelu (2006), we are now in the era of postmethods. That is, language teaching
is considered primarily about, not methodology, but other aspects of teaching. What are these other
aspects?

Postmethods

English language teachers and researchers often discuss principles or strategies in language teaching.
You will read Brown’s (2007) set of principles later in this module. As an example of strategies, we can
look at Kumaravadivelu’s (2006) 10 macrostrategies for language teaching:
1. Maximize learning opportunities
2. Facilitate negotiated interaction
3. Minimize perceptual mismatches
4. Activate intuitive heuristics
5. Foster language awareness
6. Contextualize linguistic input
7. Integrate language skills
8. Promote learner autonomy
9. Ensure social relevance
10. Raise cultural consciousness (p. 201)

Though principles are phrased as foundational understandings about SLA, and strategies are framed as
broad guidelines, both deal with the underlying goals of language teaching rather than with specific
methods or approaches used to reach those goals. For example, a teacher needs to understand the
principle that “students learn through practice” and the strategy of “maximizing learning opportunities.”
When a teacher acts on this knowledge, she will consistently make choices in the classroom that result
in student learning. She may ask more questions, utilize more group work, and wait longer for student
responses. She does these things, not because she learned certain methods or techniques, but because
her teaching is based on certain principles and guided by overarching strategies.

Principles and strategies in language teaching go hand in hand with the role of the teacher in the
classroom. Is a good teacher a “sage on the stage” or a “guide on the side”? There are many good
reasons why more “guide” teaching and less “sage” teaching is usually advocated and why facilitating
language acquisition is perhaps the best job description for a language teacher. First, the very fact that
students need to communicate means that student talk must take precedence over teacher talk. But
that is not the only reason why teachers need to adopt a facilitative role. Our understanding of language
learning and teaching today generally points to the value of developing learner autonomy—equipping
learners to direct their own language learning, and motivating them for learning beyond the classroom.
Learner autonomy usually cannot be accomplished through traditional sage-type teaching. You will read
more about learner autonomy later in this module.

Beyond EFL and ESL: New models for language acquisition

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With the shift from teacher to learner has come another trend: outsourcing language acquisition to
general education. The trend to move language acquisition out of traditional ESL or EFL classrooms
possibly began with a heightened interest in CBI—Content-Based Instruction. Also called CLIL, Content
and Language Integrated Learning, this approach to language acquisition emphasizes learning other
content, such as math, science, cooking, or golf, through the medium of the target language.
Methodologies within this approach vary in terms of how much the target language is actively taught.
Sometimes this approach is used by content instructors who may understand little about language
acquisition and who may assume that the target language will be learned incidentally as the focus of the
classroom remains on the content. Those who are experts in content-based language acquisition usually
advocate focusing on the language being learned, perhaps with equal emphasis on the content and the
language.

Immersion Education can be thought of as full-time CBI. Students of all ages, through university and
even beyond, in professional development settings, may learn all or most of their academic content
through a target language. The term immersion education often refers to 100% immersion in a
foreign/second language academic context. However, the immersion concept can also be found in
“partial immersion” situations, perhaps where 80% of the school day is in the target language and the
other 20% in the native language.

This leads us to the Bilingual Education model, in which students experience some immersion and some
native language instruction in an academic context. The varieties of bilingual education are too
numerous to explore here. One highly effective model is Dual Language Instruction. In this type of
bilingual education, children receive instruction through both the target language and the native
language in roughly equal amounts, though content is not duplicated. Often, a school of this type seeks
equivalent numbers of native speaking children from each language group. As was mentioned in an
earlier reading, Dual Language Instruction rises above other childhood language acquisition models in
some of the research. Whereas immersion education may result in the loss of the native language and
may not produce highly proficient L2 users, dual language models are much less likely to experience
these negative results.

It is important to remember that CBI, immersion, and bilingual education are not new concepts. For
centuries children in many parts of the world have only had access to education through a nonnative
language—a reality that continues to exist, unfortunately. So, learning a language while acquiring
academic content is not a new phenomenon. What is relatively new is the intentional choice of such
schooling options for the sole purpose of language acquisition. Parents today in Indonesia or Germany
or Argentina may choose full or partial English immersion schools for their children, not because good
educational opportunities do not exist in their native languages, but because they believe this type of
education is the best English-language acquisition opportunity for their children. Likewise, English-
speaking parents in Canada often choose French immersion schools for their children as the most
effective way for them to acquire both national languages. In the United States, dual language Spanish,
Mandarin, Japanese, and other language programs are increasingly popular.
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As language acquisition shifts more toward learner opportunities, and away from teaching methods and
techniques, we may see even traditional EFL and ESL classrooms embrace more CBI-like curricula.

What should English teachers know and be able to do?

Any discussion attempting to explain the current state of English teaching would not be complete
without addressing the English teacher. What does a good English teacher look like in today’s TESOL
world? Effective language teachers possess two skill sets: 1) language skill and 2) teaching skill, as shown
in Figure 1. The first requirement seems obvious: You can’t teach a language if you can’t speak it. This
ability to “speak” or “use” a language we call communicative competence. We develop this

Figure 1. Requirements for effective language teaching.

ability naturally in our native language. Usually, we are fully proficient in basic communication skills by
the age of 5 or 6. We can both meet our needs and build relationships with others by using language.
Additionally, we are able to use language to think, entertain, and understand the world around us. But
we do not automatically develop what I call here linguistic knowledge—that is, knowing about language.
Our teachers in school strive to teach us verbs and adjectives and adverbs in hopes that we will know
our language thoroughly by the time we graduate from high school. Unfortunately the result of many
years of grammar study is often just a distaste for diagramming sentences, not a deep understanding of
how our language is put together.

Teaching skill is the second requirement for effective language teaching. In teacher education programs,
the starting point for developing language teaching skill is theoretical knowledge. Language acquisition is

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a fascinating field of study. How does the brain make sense of incoming sounds and symbols and
transform them into meaning? What conditions must be present for language acquisition, and why?
When attempts at language learning fail, what has gone wrong?

After laying a foundation of theoretical understanding in SLA, we can begin to develop methodological
competence: the ability to choose classroom activities and techniques that will result in language
learning. We build up a storehouse of activities to teach the different language skills (speaking, listening,
reading, and writing), different language proficiency levels, different age groups, and different class
sizes. We know how to foster fluency with some activities and accuracy with others. We can make quick
changes in activities to perk up a sleepy evening class of busy adults or to keep an overactive group of
third-graders from tearing up the classroom. In essence, we know what to do in the classroom so that
students can acquire the language.

Finally, we have begun to look at teacher attitudes, beliefs, and values as being of considerable
importance in language teaching. These attitudes, beliefs, and values are sometimes referred to as
teacher dispositions. We do not need research to tell us, for example, that cheerful, positive teachers
are probably more effective than boring, pessimistic ones. Enthusiasm, concern, and respect for
students, and reflection on teaching are just a few of the teacher characteristics that we know have a
huge impact on teaching effectiveness.

Conclusion

As we have considered the state of English teaching today, it may be helpful to summarize with a
definition of teaching that works for TESOL. Fundamentally, teaching is all about the learner, and it can
be helpful to keep in mind this very basic definition of good teaching:

Teaching a language = Enabling someone to acquire a language

After you read

1. Choose one of the methods mentioned in the section on historical methods. Find a video online
illustrating that method. Answer the following questions:

Method chosen: __________________________________________________________

a. Would you classify this as an effective method? Why or why not? (Consider to what
degree you did or did not observe students learning and using the language.)

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

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 b. What element(s) of this method might be useful to adopt for your own teaching? For
example, if investigating the Silent Way, we might say that the relative silence of the
teacher is a good thing to emulate.

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

2. Choose two of Kumaravadivelu’s macrostrategies for language teaching. Write sentence-length

Strategy: ________________________________________________________________

Definition:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Strategy: ________________________________________________________________

Definition:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Apply your learning

1. Consider how CBI (or CLIL), language immersion, or bilingual education might apply to your
intended teaching context. Write a short paragraph telling how one of these models, or a
principle derived from one of these models, might be useful in your teaching.

______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. Consider the four requirements of a language teacher. Consider your own strengths and
weaknesses, and rate yourself as low, medium, or high in each area. Alongside your rating, tell
why you chose this rating. Look at the example of “Haemin,” then do your own.

Haemin’s profile:

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 Communicative competence: HIGH: Learned English in school and has taken English-
medium college courses

Linguistic competence: MEDIUM: Studied English grammar as a learner, but needs to

Theoretical competence: LOW: Has a short Certificate in TESOL, but it did not include
much SLA theory

Methodological competence: MEDIUM: Learned some methods in the certificate course, and
experienced some effective methodology used by her own
teachers

YOUR profile:

Communicative competence:
______________________________________________________________________________

Linguistic competence:

______________________________________________________________________________

Theoretical competence:

______________________________________________________________________________

Methodological competence:

______________________________________________________________________________

References

Asher, J. (1969). The Total Physical Response approach to second language learning. Modern Language
Journal, 53(1).

Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson
Longman.

Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. Mahwah,