English Language Teaching Methods Essay Example

(PPP) There are three stages in PPP method and various approaches can be used.

Step 1: Presentation This stage is where the teacher will introduce the lesson to the learners. It will require the teacher to presents an item of language in a clear context to get across its meaning. That means the approach used should be realistic, clear and simple so that it will be easy for the learners to understand. According to PPP for Dummies, this can be achieved through using realia such as pictures, dialogs, imagination or actual ‘classroom situations’. However, to make the presentation effective, approaches are not limited to those stated earlier.

Fun ways such as building up stories on the board, using realia or flashcards and miming can be a success too. For example: I draw a picture of myself on the board with thought bubbles of lots of money, a sport car, a big house and a world map. I ask my students what I'm thinking about and then introduce the target language. "If I had a lot of money, I would buy a sports car and a big house. " I practise and drill the sentence orally before writing it on the board (positive, negative, question and short answer). I then focus on form by asking the students questions. E. g. What do we use after 'if'? " And on meaning by asking the students questions to check that they have understood the concept. E. g. "Do I have lots of money? " No. "What am I doing? " Imagining. Source: Teaching English: Planning a Grammar Lesson by Tanya Cotter After the presentation done, the teacher should check whether

the learner able to understand the concept of the language introduced. According to PPP for Dummies, this is the most teacher-orientated stage of the process, where error correction is important. Hence, teacher should be really well-prepared before the class.

Step 2: Practice This stage starts with ‘mechanical practice’ – open and closed pair work. The learners can be put in a small group; two to three persons in a group for discussion about the item of language introduces earlier during the presentation. Next, the learners will move gradually to a bigger group of discussion - ‘communicative practice’. There are a lot of activities that can be done during this stage such as sentence transformations, split sentences, picture dictations, class questionnaires, reordering sentences and matching sentences to pictures.

It is important for the teacher take fair participation during this stage since it will create familiarity and confidence with the new language for the learners. This is because, if the teacher absolutely flunks out from the practice, the learners might do mistakes and there is no one to correct them. Hence, as the stage built the learners’ confident to speak in the language, the might tend to repeat the same mistake over again. Therefore, the teacher play important role to direct and to correct during this this stage, still. Example of activity:

I would use split sentences as a controlled practice activity. I give students lots of sentence halves and in pairs they try and match the beginnings and ends of the sentences. …we won’t be able to play soccer. If I won the lottery,… E. g. Match the first sentence with its possible half. …I’d travel around the world.

If I am beautiful,… …I think every boy will like me. If it rains,… Source: Teaching English: Planning a Grammar Lesson by Tanya Cotter At this stage, the lesson should have been more learner-centered. Step 3: Production This final stage also known as ‘free practice’ stage.

According to PPP for Dummies, this stage is seen as the culmination of the language learning process, whereby the learners have started to become independent users of the language rather than students of the language. The teacher may give the learners communication task as a role play and are expected to produce the target language. Although the question is controlled, the learners should be ensured the opportunity to answer spontaneously even if it means they will answer using any other language that had been learnt as long answer suitable to complete the task.

Again there are numerous activities for this stage and what you choose will depend on the language you are teaching and on the level of your students. However, information gaps, role plays, interviews, simulations, find someone who, spot the differences between two pictures, picture cues, problem solving, personalisation activities and board games are all meaningful activities which give students the opportunity to practise the language more freely. Example of activity: I would try to personalise the lesson at this stage by giving students a list of question prompts to ask others in the class.

E. g. “Do I win the lottery? ” “What more can I do if I win the lottery? ” Source: Teaching English: Planning a Grammar Lesson by Tanya Cotter Teacher’s role in this test should depend on the learners’ request. For example, the teacher does

not correct any answer given unless the learner prompt the teacher to do so. Teacher’s role is more to facilitate the class rather than to give any new input. Review on the method Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) 1. Presentation * Introduction of item of language to the learners. * Characteristic of suitable approach: realistic, clear, and simple. Example of approaches: building up stories on the board, using realia or flashcards and miming. * Teacher’s role: explaining the item of language and check the concept of language understood by the learners. 2. Practice * Learner-centered stage; a) Discuss in a small group - mechanical practice. b) Gradually move to bigger group discussion - communicative practice. * Characteristic of suitable approach: allow student to use the language in peer group. * Example of approaches: sentence transformations, split sentences, picture dictations. Teacher’s role: to direct the class and to correct any mistake made during the discussion. 3. Production * Also known as ‘free practice’ stage. * The learners have started to become independent users of the language. * Characteristic of suitable approach: role play in a communicative way and the language spoken during this stage is not necessarily English. * Example of approaches: information gaps, role plays, interviews. * Teacher’s role: As observer and react only prompt by the learners. Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) Method 2: Task-Based Learning (TBL)

Task-Based Learning (TBL) is when a classroom activity focuses on the task given by the teacher and language acts as the medium or instrument for completing the task. This is an alternative model to Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) approach. The task given is an activity that allows student to

use language to achieve specific goal. Examples of activities are playing games, role play and even sharing personal experiences with the class. Learners are to solve or complete the task given either individually, in pairs or in a small group.

They will then present or perform in front of the class. At the end, the teacher will then correct any language errors throughout the whole presentation. Finally, learners would be required to present their initial task again or the teacher might go for another similar task. These activities give opportunity for learners of a language to learn that specific language, in this sense, English, in a more natural way. Jane Willis in A Framework for Task-Based Learning (1994, Longman) suggested three basic stages to carry out a lesson based on the TBL approach. 1. PRE-TASK

In pre-task, the teacher introduces the topic to learners, giving them specific and detailed instructions on what they have to do throughout the whole task. At this stage, the teacher might help learners to recall some language that may be useful for the task. The teacher can also include showing a video of people doing the similar task to give learners a clearer picture of what they have to do. 2. TASK CYCLE Task Learners complete task individually, in pairs or in a small group using language resources they have. The teacher will be monitoring and giving help anywhere possible. Planning

Learners plan and prepare a report of everything that happened during their task. The report could be in a written form or a short oral. The teacher will always be there to help up with any language difficulties. Report Learners present their

report to the class. The teacher may give some feedbacks on the content of their report. 3. LANGUAGE FOCUS Analysis The teacher highlights the language learners used during their presentation for analysis. The teacher could get another text example from resources like videos or magazines, related to the task given earlier, also for analysis.

The teacher may ask learners to identify the interesting features within the text. Practice This is a final stage where the teacher selects language areas to practise based on learners needs and what resulted from the task and report stages. The teacher gives practice activities to increase learners’ confidence and make a note of useful language. Example of activity for TBL Task: Getting to know your teachers Pre-task activity In pairs, learners talk about an English teacher they had before, based on these questions: * What was her name? * Where was she from? * How old was she? Do you remember any of her lessons? * What was your favourite activity during her class? Stage one Which of your teachers...? | Teachers’ names and other information ... | * ... has the most interesting hobby? | | * ... can say 10 words in a language other than English or the local language? Which words? | | * ... can give you the best explanation for the difference between past simple and present perfect? | | * ... (your question)| | * ... (your question)| | Using the above sheet, students prepare questions for the questionnaire that they are going to use to interview their teachers.

Stage two To set up activity, learners interview the teacher who gave the task and record

the information. Stage three They then can interview other teachers available and record the information. Stage four Working with another different partner, learners compare their answers and share experiences during the whole task. Stage five Feedback and reflection. Give learners the opportunity to express their opinions and experiences throughout the whole task. The teacher gives necessary feedback. Source: http://www. onestopenglish. com

Method 3: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is influenced by Krashen. CLT can be understood as a set of principles about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the roles of teachers and learners in the classroom. Teacher facilitates learners’ lesson by managing classroom activities and setting up communicative situations while students are communicators who actively engaged in negotiating meaning (Geyser, 2006).

The teaching of communicative competence is set as its goal in CLT as well as the ability to use the language appropriate for a given social context and situations such as making a hotel reservation, purchasing airline tickets, ordering at a restaurant, asking for directions and so on. Hymas (1972) proposed a theory of language as communication. He posits that communicative competence implies knowledge of the language, ability to decide whether an utterance is formally possible, ability to adapt an utterance to the context and ability to use the language to have something done.

In this method, listening and speaking skills are too focused on. Few communicative activities can be carried out in the classroom such as role-plays, games, dramas, pair or small-group activities. These activities create a free-stress environment in classrooms so that learners’ speaking and listening

potential can be maximized. Drama and Role-Play There are several drama type activities which are utilized in the English language classrooms like role-play, various drama games and improvised drama. 1. Role-play: Learners can either create own scenes using their imaginations or they recreate a scene or environment with the help of role-cards.

A little information regarding character and scene may include in role-cards. Students need to understand the scenario presented to them and that they understand the information on their role-cards. Let the learners discuss the role-cards amongst themselves and offer assistance where necessary. The learners are encouraged to discard their role-cards prior to the role-play and rely on improvising. Example of role-play: Customer and Manager The students are going to do a role play. They will either take on the role of a customer or a manager at a hotel. The customer has a complaint and approaches the manager.

Imagine you are the Customer: Role-Card Loud music has kept you awake all the night The tap in your bathroom drips continuously You got food poisoning from the hotel food The linen on your bed is dirty * How has this ruined your holiday? * How do you feel about this problem? * What do you want the manager to do about this problem? Imagine you are the Manager: Role-Card Loud music has kept the customer awake all night The tap in the customer’s bathroom drips continuously

The customer got food poisoning from the hotel food The linen on the customer’s bed is dirty * What are you going to say to the customer about their problem? * Is this problem the fault of the holiday company? *

What solutions can you offer? Source: English to the World: Teaching Methodology Made Easy by Jason Peter Geyser 2. Drama Games: These activities can be integrated into a lesson as warmer or fillers either at the beginning, middle of a lesson or at the end of a lesson in order to change the pace of a lesson or add variety. Example of idea for drama games: Questioning in Role or Hot Seating

Questioning in role/hot seating involves one of the learners sitting on a chair at the front of the classroom. This learner takes on the role of a well-known or famous individual. The other learners in the class then have an opportunity to ask this “famous” person any questions about motives, character and attitude. Source: English to the World: Teaching Methodology Made Easy by Jason Peter Geyser 3. Improvised Drama: Students are given free rein in terms of imagination and choice. They create own scene or story in class, rehearse and act out for the rest of the class. Example of improvisation scenarios:

Small Groups (3-5) This improvisation would be for 3 players. It would involve two parents and a child. The subject would be about the child (junior high or high school) wishing to extend the curfew. The mother wants to protect her child, but she doesn’t want to smother him/her. The mother and child have gotten along well in the past. The father doesn’t want the child’s “new friend” isn’t the best of influences, and the father caught his child smoking while with them. Source: English to the World: Teaching Methodology Made Easy by Jason Peter Geyser Pair or Group Activities

In order to ensure

that everyone gets an equal opportunity to speak, it is a good idea to organize speaking and at the same time listening activities into pairs, groups and whole class. Examples of activities that are designed to get learners to speak and to listen to each other are as follows. 1. Ranking and Negotiating Games A group of learners have to decide what to take from a series of objects for a particular situation, for example: To get to the north pole, or survive on a desert island. Each learner has 2 objects that they want to take. Each person must argue in favour of their own choices.

The learner with the most inventive argument wins rather than the most sensible idea. Source: English to the World: Teaching Methodology Made Easy by Jason Peter Geyser 2. Picture Comparison In this activity the learners work in pairs. One learner is given picture A and the other is given picture B. They have to spot the differences between each picture without looking at the other picture. They have to describe the pictures to each other while sitting back to back. The learners mark the differences on their individual pictures. Picture comparison activity Learner B Learner A Source: http://www. google. com. y/imgres? q=picture+of+spotting+the+difference Method 4: Audio-lingual Method Background This method was based on the principles of behaviour psychology. Like the Direct Method, it is also an oral-based approach. The Audio-Lingual Method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. It was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the target language was through conditioning –helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement. Learners

could overcome the habits of their native language and form the new habits required to be target language speakers.

For example: I will give out the dialogues. I will read the dialogue to the learners. I will explain if necessary words of the dialogue they do not understand. The learners will read the dialogue to themselves and to me. They will then pair up with another learner to practice the dialogue. They will come to the front to practice the dialogue in front of the class. If some of them want, they can say it without reading from the paper. The learners can create their own dialogue by changing the names or things of the old one. I will ask them a few questions in order to change questions to statements.

Source: Example of Lesson Plan using the Audiolingual Method by Laura Ocampo The aim of this drill is error-free production. Learners practise patterns until they recall them automatically. Drills can include the form of repetition, substitution (of a word or phrase) or transformation. For example: Learners practise the structure “Do you like? ”. In each question, they substitute a noun with the noun that I offer. Me: Coffee. Learner: Do you like coffee? Me: Tea. Learner: Do you like tea? Me: Wine. Learner: Do you like wine? Hints for Using Audio-lingual Drills in L2 Teaching . The teacher must be careful to insure that all of the utterances which students will make are actually within the practiced pattern. 2. Drills should be conducted as rapidly as possible so as to insure automaticity and to establish a system. 3. Ignore all but gross errors of pronunciation when

drilling for grammar practice. 4. Use of shortcuts to keep the pace of drills at a maximum. Use hand motions, signal cards, notes, etc. to cue response. 5. Drill material should always be meaningful. If the content words are not known, teach their meanings. 6.

Intersperse short periods of drill (about 10 minutes) with very brief alternative activities to avoid fatigue and boredom. 7. Don’t stand in one place; move about the room standing next to as many different students as possible to check their production. Thus you will know who to give more practice to during individual drilling. Source: http://www. slideshare. net/guest0c02e6/methodsoflanguageteaching Conclusion In conclusion, there are hundreds of methods, approaches and techniques in teaching English language. However, various teaching methods have come into vogue and disappeared.

As Mitchell and Miles (1998) explain: Teaching is an art as well as a science… There can be no ‘one best method’, however much research evidence supports it, which applies at all times and in all situations, with every type of learner. Instead, teachers ‘read’ and ‘interpret’ the changing dynamics of the learning context from moment to moment, and take what seem to them to be appropriate contingent actions, in the light of largely implicit, procedurelized pedagogic knowledge. From the above explanation, educationists must be clear from the beginning that there is no one best method.

Teaching methods do not exist in a ‘pure form’ in the classroom. Each teachers need to adapt by making informed decisions based on the learners’ needs about what methods work best with particular pupils in a particular context. Most importantly, educationists’ methods and practices should be regularly assessed and monitored to see if they

are working effectively or not. This will ensure that educationists are using the best techniques for that particular class. References Bowen, T. Teaching Approaches: Task-Based Learning. Retrieved on November 25, 2011 from http://www. nestopenglish. com/support/methodology/teaching-approaches/teaching-approaches-task-based-learning/146502. article. Cotter, T. Teaching English: Planning a Grammar Lesson. Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www. teachingenglish. org. uk/articles/planning-a-grammar-lesson. Geyser, J. P. English to the World: Teaching Methodology Made Easy. August Publishing Sdn. Bhd. , 2006. Kirsch, C. Teaching Foreign Languages in the Primary School. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Ocampo, L. Retrieved on November 25, 2011 from http://lauraocampoolivares. blogspot. om/2009/07/escuela-de-estudios-profesionales. html. PPP for Dummies (25 April 2008). Retrieved on November 29, 2011 from http://www. eltworld. net/howto/2008/04/ppp-for-dummies/. Teaching Method. (n. d. ). Definitions. net. Retrieved November 30, 2011, from http://www. definitions. net/definition/teaching method. Teaching Tips: What is Task-Based Learning. Retrieved on November 28, 2011 from http://www. pearsonlongman. com/teaching-tips/task-based-learning. html. Wa’Njogu, K. Methods of Language Teaching. Retrieved on November 26, 2011 from http://www. slideshare. net/guest0c02e6/methodsoflanguageteaching.