ENGLISH TEACHING

METHODOLOGY 1
 COURSE DESCRIPTION
• The course aims at introducing students to EFL methodology. It purports to familiarize
them with the concept of teaching methodology and the various factors that underlie
teaching and learning processes. The course will also deal with various learning theories
that have shaped language acquisition and learning throughout history and their
corresponding principles and pedagogical applications. The aim here is to help the
students develop an acute understanding of these theories in relation to the history of
language teaching methods and approaches. Building on this theoretical background, the
students will be initiated to a variety of teaching techniques, strategies and activities with
an emphasis on understanding the nature, dynamics and complexity of the EFL
classroom.
• EFL methodology: Introduction
• Lesson Planning
• Learners and learning: Related concepts
• Learners and learning: Related concepts (autonomy/motivation/ …)
• Teaching and learning: Considerations and issues
• Teachers and teaching: Managing the classroom Reflective pedagogy
• Learning theories 1
• ELT: Approaches and perspectives
• Materials development and evaluation
• Teaching language skills and components
• Assessment and evaluation
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DIDACTICS
AND PEDAGOGY?

• While didactics is a discipline that is essentially concerned with the science of

teaching and instruction for any given field of study, pedagogy is focused more
specifically on the strategies, methods and various techniques associated with
teaching and instruction. Pedagogy also refers to the ability of a teacher to
match theoretical foundations or concepts with practical methods of knowledge
transfer in education on language-related problems, while responding and
adapting to the learning strategies of their students. Finally, didactics is teacher-
centered and based on the sum of theoretical knowledge and practical
experience. In comparison, pedagogy is learner-centred, since the teaching must
be adapted to respond to the complexity of student needs.
GENERAL DIDACTICS AND SUBJECT
DIDACTICS
 LESSON PLANNING
• Many teachers around the world wonder which way they ought to go before they enter
the classroom . This entails that teachers need to make careful planning of what they
want to do before they come to the classroom .
• Planning may include yearly ,term, unit, weekly, and daily lesson planning.
• According to Richards 1998 , the success of a lesson will depend on the effectiveness
with which the lesson was planned.
• Why do teachers then need to plan lessons
• Models of lesson planning
• How to plan a lesson
THE BENEFITS OF LESSON PLANNING
• Effective objective describe what students will be able to do in terms of observable
behaviors when using the foreign language .
• ELT researchers suggest that it is advisable for teachers to use action verbs instead of
stative verbs when stating the objectives. This is similar to the verbs used in Bloom’s
taxonomy of thinking processes.
• Vague verbs such understand , appreciate , enjoy should be avoided as they are difficult to
quantify. Action verbs such as describe, explain , demonstrate , list, contrast, and debate
can be clearer and easier for the teacher to design a lesson around.
PRE PLANNING PHASE
THE IMPLANTATION PHASE
TWO KEY ISSUES NEED TO BE TAKEN INTO
ACCOUNT WHEN IMPLEMENTING THE LESSON

• Variety in lesson delivery and choice of activity will keep the lesson interesting and
lively.
• Lesson pacing
EVALUATING THE LESSON PLAN
 Purpose of the lesson plan
HELPS KEEP GOOD CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
• When a lesson works well, students not only learn—they behave
It suggests a level of professionalism and real commitment
FOR THE LEARNER
• They realize that the teacher cares for their
learning
• They attend a structured lesson: easier to
assimilate
• They appreciate their teacher’s work as a
model of well-organized work to imitate.
REMINDER: PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNICATIVE
LANGUAGE TEACHING
What to consider when planning
 What to consider when planning

• Ability & interest levels

Know your students • Backgrounds
• Attention spans
• Ability to work together in groups
• Prior knowledge and learning experiences

• Subject matter that you will be teaching

Know the content
• Medium of instructions
• National/state curriculum standards

Know the • Technology, software, audio/visuals,

instructional material equipment, library resources, speakers,
etc.

• Can be Written or Oral

Know how to assess
• or can even be on going through the lesson.

• Record of results must be kept

 Principles of planning
Five guiding principles:
challenge variety
• Variety
• Coherence
• Balance
• Flexibility flexibility coherence

• Challenge
balance
 Variety
Why vary?
• a- to meet different learning styles
• b- to consider different intelligence types.
• c- to keep them interested and avoid monotony.
What to vary?
• Contents – Activities – Interaction modes – Materials –
Aids …
Coherence
• Observe a logical pattern to the lesson: there has to be
connection between the different activities in the
lesson.
• Smooth transition is one of the pillars that ensures
success of the lesson plan during implementation in
the classroom.
• An activity in a lesson builds on a previous one and
prepares for the next.
Challenge
• Learners are intelligent human beings and come to class with
knowledge previously acquired.
• The new lesson should add to that knowledge without excess.
• The lesson that does not challenge is a lesson that does not
motivate.
• No learning happens if the lesson doesn’t present new items beyond
students’ prior knowledge.
Flexibility
• Two dimensions:
a- ability to use a number of different techniques and
not be a slave to one methodology – Principled
eclecticism.
b- ability to change the plan if it shows inappropriacy to
the classroom real situation for one reason or the
other.
Balance
The lesson is a mixture of a number of
ingredients: techniques, activities,
contents …. The successful teacher is the
one who is able to observe the right
dosage and makes the learners enjoy a
savoury lesson.
Suggested format of a lesson plan
A. Goals: A unifying theme, an overall general purpose to
accomplish by the end of the lesson period.
 e.g. Students will increase their familiarity with the
conventions of telephone conversations
B. Objectives : Explicitly state what you want students to gain
from the lesson.
What students will do:
a. Be sure you know what it is you want to accomplish
b. Preserve the unity of your lesson
c. Predetermine whether or not you are trying to accomplish
too much
d. Evaluate students' success
C.Materials & Equipment : Tape / tape recorder / poster / map /
handouts
D.Procedures : There is so much variation here that it is hard to give
any "set recipes", but make sure your plan includes :
 a. An opening statement or activity as warm-up for the lesson itself
 b. A set of activities and techniques in which you have considered
appropriate proportions of time for :
-- Whole class work
-- Group and / or pair work
-- Teacher Talk
-- Student Talk
-- Teacher / student Talk
c. Closure
d. Homework
 e. Evaluation
 COMPONENTS OF A LESSON PLAN
…
4. Aids:
COMPONENTS OF A LESSON PLAN
…
2. OBJECTIVES:
 Writing learning objectives
What is a Learning Objective?
A learning objective is a statement of what students will be able to do when
they have completed instruction. A learning objective has three major
components:

1. A description of what the student will be able to do

2. The conditions under which the student will perform the task.
3. The criteria for evaluating student performance.
 What is the difference between a GOAL and a Learning Objective?

A GOAL is a statement of the intended general outcome of an instructional unit or

program. A goal statement describes a more global learning outcome. A learning objective
is a statement of one of several specific performances, the achievement of which
contributes to the attainment of the goal. A single GOAL may have many specific
subordinate learning objectives. For example

GOAL: The goal of the Learning Assessment course is to enable the students to make
reliable and accurate assessments of learning.

Learning Objective #1: Given a learning objective the student will be able to develop
an appropriate multiple-choice question to measure student achievement of the
objective.
Learning Objective #2: Given a printout from an item analysis of a multiple choice
exam the student will be able to state the accuracy of the test scores.
Learning Objective #3: Given the discrimination and difficulty indices of an item the
student will be able to determine if the item contributes to the reliability of the exam.
 The four components of objectives
 Content – first, this component describes the specific subject matter to be
learned.
 Behavior - Second, an objective must describe the competency to be
learned in performance terms. The choice of a verb is all-important here.

 know-understand-grasp-appreciate -believe CANNOT BE MEASURED!

 Criterion - Third, an objective should make clear how well a learner must
perform to be judged adequate. This can be done with a statement indicating a
degree of accuracy, a quantity or proportion of correct responses or the like.

 Conditions - Fourth, an objective should describe the conditions under which

the learner will be expected to perform in the evaluation situation. What
tools, references, or other aids will be provided or denied should be made
clear.
COMPONENTS behavior content criterion condition

The subject will DO/SAY SOMETH this WELL in this SITUATION

DESCRITORS observable specific how accurately, what setting or

verb frequently, or with what
consistently provided
 Bloom’s Taxonomy of learning

In Bloom’s taxonomy there are three fundamental learning domains: Cognitive, Psychomotor, and
Affective.

Affective : learning of beliefs, attitudes, and values.

Psychomotor: learning of physical movements such as ballet steps, how to pitch a curve ball, how to
drill out a cavity in a molar, etc.

Cognitive :learning of information and the processes of dealing with that information.
 Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive
domain
There are six levels of Cognitive Learning as specified by Bloom:
Basic Knowledge: To recall and memorize
recall identify recognize acquire distinguish
Comprehension: To translate from one form to another
Translate extrapolate convert interpret abstract transform

Application: To apply or use information in a new situation

Apply sequence carry out solve prepare operate Generalize plan repair explain

Analysis: To examine a concept and break it down into its part

analyze estimate compare observe detect classify discover discriminate order

Synthesis: To put information together in a unique or novel way to solve a problem

write plan integrate formulate propose specify produce organize theorize design

Evaluation: To make quantitative or qualitative judgments using standards of appraisal

Evaluate verify assess test judge rank measure appraise select check
Pedagogical Scenario
Micro teaching sessions

•You are asked to design a

pedagogical scenario for
your micro teaching
 TASK 1 In groups, discuss one of the following questions:

1. Why is lesson planning important?

2. How is lesson planning important for the teacher?

3. How is lesson planning important for or the learners?

4. What to take into account when designing a lesson plan?

Thank YOU
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

What is SLA ?
 WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF SLA ?

• 1/ Description
• 2/ Explanation

• 3/ Identification

External Internal
factors factors
 KEY ISSUES IN SLA
• The first issue is the initial state
• The concept of initial state refers to the starting point for L2 learners; namely,what
they bring to the task of acquiring another language.
• There are two basic positions on the initial state of SLA:
• (1) the learner transfers all properties of the first language at the outset (the L1 =
initial state hypothesis);
• (2) the learner begins with “universals of language” and does not transfer L1
properties at the outset.
 KEY ISSUES IN SLA
• There some scholars who beleive that all properties of L1 are transfered
into the L2 from the very beginning . Full transfer
• The job of L2 learners subsequently is to replace L1 properties with L2
properties within the theory of UG and this is often called parameter
resiting .
• Example . The Spanish language which is considered a null subject language
which allows the speaker to omit the subject in finit sentences. The initial
state position would claim that speakers would begin acquisition assuming
that English is a null subject lge and it has the same null subject properties
as Spanish. The learner will believe that
Is raining now is a good sentence and the same thing will happen with
English speakers learning the Spanish language .
THE 2ND ISSUE
CAN L2 LEARNERS BECOME NATIVE LIKE

• Throughout the history of SLA , a number of studies have been conducted to show
whether L2 learners can achieve native likeness or not.

L2 learners L2 learners can L2 learners can

can not achieve native
become native likeness in some
become like domains
native like
THE 2ND ISSUE
CAN L2 LEARNERS BECOME NATIVE LIKE

• A study by Coppieters 1987 in which he tested very advanced learners of French

L2 on morphology, syntax, and semantic properties , and compared them with
native French speakers. The study concluded that there is considerable deviation
between natives and non-natives.
• Another study by Jonhson and Newport 1991 , in this study Chinese learners of
English L2 were found to differ substantially from native speakers.
 THE 2ND ISSUE
CAN L2 LEARNERS BECOME NATIVE LIKE
• In terms of phonology , a lot of studies suggest that Nns can not achieve native like
pronunciation .
• As a case in point, James Flege and his colleagues demonstrated that early L2 learners can
attain a native like accent but that late do not.
• Flege’s claim does not entail that learners can not become native like , his conclusion is that
native likeness decreases with age of learning.
L2 LEARNERS CAN ACHIEVE NATIVE LIKENESS IN
SOME DOMAINS .

• Native likeness is limited to some domains

• Donna Ladier found that there is disconnection between syntactic competence inflections – and the
phonological representation .
• In her study, it was found out that there is a difference between the production of past tense in oral
speech, a paraticipant called Patty produced past endings anywhere , but in the written email almost
87 percent of past tense was produced correctly. The researcher suggested that Paty’s mental
representation seemed to be working against her, and this is because it was constrained by transfer
from L1.
• L2 learners may be native like in terms of morphological and syntactic representation of tense and
may not be native like in terms of phonological competence – ability.
CRITICAL PERIOD
CRITICAL PERIOD
 STEPHEN KRASHEN'S THEORY OF
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Stephen Krashen (University of Southern California) is an
expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of
language acquisition and development. Much of his recent
research has involved the study of non-English and bilingual
language acquisition. During the past 20 years, he has
published well over 100 books and articles and has been
invited to deliver over 300 lectures at universities throughout
the United States and Canada.
DESCRIPTION OF KRASHEN'S THEORY OF SECOND
LANGUAGE ACQUISITION:

• The Acquisition-Learning hypothesis,

• The Monitor hypothesis,
• The Natural Order hypothesis,
• The Input hypothesis,
• The Affective Filter hypothesis.
THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

• The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most fundamental of all the hypotheses in

Krashen's theory and the most widely known among linguists and language practitioners.
• According to Krashen there are two independent systems of second language performance:
'the acquired system' and 'the learned system'. The 'acquired system' or 'acquisition'
is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo
when they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target
language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of
their utterances, but in the communicative act.
THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

• The second way to develop competence in a second language is by

language learning. We will use the term "learning" henceforth to refer to
conscious knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules, being
aware of them, and being able to talk about them. In non-technical terms,
learning is "knowing about" a language, known to most people as
"grammar", or "rules". Some synonyms include formal knowledge of a
language, or explicit learning.
 THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

• The result of language acquisition, acquired competence, is also subconscious.

We are generally not consciously aware of the rules of the languages we have
acquired. Instead, we have a "feel" for correctness. Grammatical sentences
"sound" right, or "feel" right, and errors feel wrong, even if we do not
consciously know what rule was violated.
• Other ways of describing acquisition include implicit learning, informal
learning, and natural learning. In non-technical language, acquisition is "picking-
up" a language.
 THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

• The 'learned system' or 'learning' is the product of formal instruction

and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious
knowledge 'about' the language, for example knowledge of grammar
rules. According to Krashen 'learning' is less important than
'acquisition'.
 THE ACQUISITION-LEARNING HYPOTHESIS

• Some second language theorists have assumed that children acquire, while
adults can only learn. The acquisition-learning hypothesis claims, however,
that adults also acquire, that the ability to "pick-up" languages does not
disappear at puberty. This does not mean that adults will always be able to
achieve native-like levels in a second language. It does mean that adults can
access the same natural "language acquisition device" LAD that children
use. As we shall see later, acquisition is a very powerful process in the adult.
 The Acquisition – Learning Distinction

Sub-conscious
by environment
Acquisition (Ex: games,
Picking up words
Movies, radio)

SLA

Conscious by
Knowing about
Learning instructors
Correct errors
Grammar rules
 ERROR CORRECTION IN ALH
• Error correction has little or no effect on subconscious acquisition, but it is thought to
be useful for conscious learning. Error correction supposedly helps the learner to
induce or "figure out" the right form of a rule. If, for example, a student of English as a
second language says "I goes to school every day", and the teacher corrects him or her by
repeating the utterance correctly, the learner is supposed to realize that the /s/ ending
goes with the third person and not the first person, and alter his or her conscious mental
representation of the rule. This appears reasonable, but it is not clear whether error
correction has this impact in actual practice (Fanselow, 1977; Long, 1977).
 THE NATURAL ORDER HYPOTHESIS,

• English is perhaps the most studied language as far as the natural order hypothesis is concerned, and of all
structures of English, morphology is the most studied. Brown (1973) reported that children acquiring English as a
first language tended to acquire certain grammatical morphemes, or functions words, earlier than others. For
example, the progressive marker ing (as in "He is playing baseball".) and the plural marker /s/ ("two dogs") were
among the first morphemes acquired, while the third person singular marker /s/ (as in "He lives in New York") and
the possessive /s/ ("John's hat") were typically acquired much later, coming anywhere from six months to one year
later. de Villiers (1973) confirmed Brown's longitudinal results cross-sectionally, showing that items that Brown
found to be acquired earliest in time were also the ones that children tended to get right more often. In other
words, for those morphemes studied, the difficulty order was similar to the acquisition order.
 THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS

• The Monitor hypothesis posits that acquisition and learning are used in very specific
ways. Normally, acquisition "initiates" our utterances in a second language and is
responsible for our fluency.
• Learning has only one function, and that is as a Monitor, or editor. Learning comes
into play only to make changes in the form of our utterance, after is has been
"produced" by the acquired system. This can happen before we speak or write, or
after (self-correction).
 THE MONITOR HYPOTHESIS
• The Monitor hypothesis implies that formal rules, or conscious
learning, play only a limited role in second language performance.
These limitations have become even clearer as research has
proceeded in the last few years.
• Second language performers can use conscious rules only when
three conditions are met. These conditions are necessary and
not sufficient, that is, a performer may not fully utilize his conscious
grammar even when all three conditions are met.
 THE THREE CONDITIONS

• (i) Time
• In order to think about and use conscious rules effectively, a second
language performer needs to have sufficient time. For most people, normal
conversation does not allow enough time to think about and use rules. The
over-use of rules in conversation can lead to trouble, i.e. a hesitant style of
talking and inattention to what the conversational partner is saying.
 (II) FOCUS ON FORM.

• To use the Monitor effectively, time is not enough. The

performer must also be focused on form, or thinking
about correctness (Dulay and Burt, 1978). Even when
we have time, we may be so involved in what we are
saying that we do not attend to how we are saying it.
 III) KNOW THE RULE.
• This is a very important requirement. Linguistics has taught us that the
structure of language is extremely complex, and they claim to have described
only a fragment of the best known languages. We can be sure that our
students are exposed only to a small part of the total grammar of the
language, and we know that even the best students do not learn every rule
they are exposed to.
 INDIVIDUAL VARIATION IN MONITOR USE
Monitor over users Monitor under-users. The optimal Monitor users
They attempt to monitor all the time These are performers who have not  Performers who use the Monitor
There may be two different causes for learned, or if they have learned, prefer when it is appropriate and when it
over-use of the grammar. not to use their conscious knowledge, does not interfere with
1/ Over-use may first of even when conditions allow it. communication. Many optimal users will
all derive from the performer's history of Underusers are typically uninfluenced by not use grammar in ordinary
exposure to the second language. These error correction, can self-correct only by conversation, where it
are victims of Grammar-only type of using a "feel" for correctness (e.g. "it might interfere.
instruction sounds right"), and rely completely on
2/ Another type may be related to the acquired system.
personality. These overusers have had a
chance to acquire, and may actually have
acquired a great deal of the second
language. They simply do not trust this • Our pedagogical goal is to
acquired competence and only feel
secure when they refer to their Monitor produce optimal users
"just to be sure".
 THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS
• The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires a second
language – how second language acquisition takes place.
• The Input hypothesis is only concerned with 'acquisition', not 'learning’.
• According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural
order' when he/she receives second language According 'input' that is one step
beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
• For example, if a learner is at a stage 'i', then acquisition takes place when he/she is
exposed to 'Comprehensible Input' that belongs to level 'i + 1'.
• Since not all of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same
time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to designing a
syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some 'i + 1' input that is
appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
 THE INPUT HYPOTHESIS
 The input hypothesis says that we acquire by “going for meaning” first, and as a result, we
acquire structure.
 It also states that speaking fluency cannot be taught directly. It emerges over time, on its
own.
 The best way to teach speaking, according to this view, is simply to provide comprehensible
input.
 Accuracy develops over time as the acquirer hears and understands more input.
 AFFECTIVE FILTER HYPOTHESIS

• Krashen (1986) cites motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety in the Affective

Filter Hypothesis as three categories of variables that play a role in second
language acquisition. In essence, when feelings or emotions such as anxiety,
fear, or embarrassment are elevated, it becomes difficult for language
acquisition to occur. The affective filter has commonly been described as an
imaginary wall that rises in the mind and prevents input, thus blocking
cognition. In opposition, when the affective filter is lowered, the feeling of
safety is high, and language acquisition occurs.
WHY IS THE AFFECTIVE FILTER IMPORTANT IN THE CLASSROOM?

• It is not enough to simply teach. It is not enough to deliver instruction even if it’s made
comprehensible to students. If students’ affective filters are elevated, language acquisition
will be impeded. Creating classroom environments that act intentionally to lower the
affective filter will increase language development.
• The lower the filter, the more input is allowed to pass through. Students who are highly
motivated, feel confident, and feel safe are more open to input.
 HOW CAN TEACHERS LOWER THE AFFECTIVE
FILTER IN THEIR CLASSROOMS
• Building good relationships with students
• Providing word walls and sentence starters,
• Allowing for retakes on assessments.
• Error correction
• Forcing output too early
• Isolation
• Embarrassment
• Lack of comprehensible input
• Self-confidence
• Motivation
• Try to create a learning environment that is free from anxiety
TEACHING VOCABULARY

• Read the shared materials on how to teach vocabulary

• References
• Anderman, E. M. & Anderman, L. H. (2009). Psychology of Classroom Learning: An
Encyclopedia. New York: Cengage.
• Burns, M. (Ed.). (2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. New York: Elsevier.
Farrell, T. S. C., & Jacobs, G. M. (2010). Essentials for successful English language teaching.
London, Continuum.
• Jarvis, P. (2006). The Theory and Practice of Teaching. London: Routledge. Harmer, J.
(2010). The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman.
• Richards, J. C. & Renandya, W. (2002). Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
CUP.
• Richards, J.C. & Rodgers, T.S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching.
Cambridge: CUP.