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