Theories of Teaching in Language Teaching
Chapter 2
Theories of teaching (Zahorik, 1986)
• Science-research conceptions• Theory-philosophy conceptions• Art-craft conceptions
Science-research conceptions
• Audiolingualism, Task-based Language Teaching, and Learner Training
• Pretest---treatment (experiment or empirical investigation)---post test
Audiolingualism
• derived from research on learning associated with behavioral psychology, a process of habit formation, target language were presented for memorization and learning through drills
• Stimulus (treatment)--serve to elicit behavior, response
• Reinforcement—serve to mark the response as being appropriate or inappropriate and encourage the repetition or suppression the response in the future.
Task-based Language Teaching
• SLA shows that successful language learning involves learners in negotiation of meaning.
• Learners learn through tasks that facilitate practice of both of language forms and communicative functions.
Learning Training
• cognitive styles and learning strategies that learners use when carrying out different classroom learning tasks.
• This research may involve observing learners, asking them to introspect about their learning strategies, or probing learners in other ways.
Applying the results of empirical or experimental research
• Teacher training modules could affect teaching behaviors and the behaviors affected student participation patterns (language acquisition)
• Teachers’ question patterns (display questions or referential questions)
• Teacher’s waiting time (longer waiting time)
Studying the practices of effective teachers
• Identifying effective teachers (organizing instruction, structuring teaching activities, enhancing student performance on tasks)
• Studying their teaching practices• Interview teachers, observe the teachers’
teaching, interview the students (or….)• See p. 21 , twelve characteristics of effective
teaching
Theory-philosophy conceptions
• Values-based approaches: derived from beliefs about what is viewed as morally right
• Communicative Language Teaching and the Silent Way, based on a set of carefully elaborated assumptions.
Communicative Language Teaching
• Critiquing the inadequacy of the linguistic and pedagogical theory underlying grammar-based approaches.
• The principle of CLT is that communication competence needed for participation includes not only grammatical competence, but pragmatic competence, which are grammatical competence sociocultrual competence, strategic competence, discourse competence.
• Values-based approaches: developing a teaching model from the values one holds about teachers, learners, classrooms, and the role of education in society.
• In some situation, this leads to certain approaches to teaching being viewed as politically justify and others seen as not morally, ethically, or politically supportable.
• For example, team teaching, humanistic approaches, learner-centered curriculum, reflective teaching
Art-craft conceptions
• View teaching as an art or craft, and as something which depends on the teacher’s individual skill and personality.
• Teaching is a unique set of personal skills which teachers apply in different ways according to the demands of specific situations.
• No general methods of teaching; teachers develop an approach that allows them to be themselves and do what they feel is best.
• Therefore, teacher decision-making is an essential competency in this approach because a good teacher is seen as one who analyses a situation, realize that a range of options is available based on the particular class circumstances, and then select an alternative which his likely to be most effective for the circumstances.
Essential skills of teaching
• Science-research conceptions:• Understand the learning principles• Develop tasks and activities based on the
learning principles• Monitor students performance on tasks to see
that desired performance is being achieved
Theory-philosophy conceptions Understand the theory and the principles• Select syllabus, materials, and tasks based on
the theory• Monitor your teaching to see that it conforms
to the theory
• Art- craft conceptions• Treat each teaching situation as unique• Identify the particular characteristics of each
situation• Try out different teaching strategies• Develop personal approaches to teaching