University of Mazandaran

Subject :principal and methods in language teaching

Lecturer : Dr. Hossein Bozorgian

Set by:Fadhl Waleed Khalid

Group:1
-:Q1
To what extent do you think mastery of English affects your learners’ social mobility? What
?other benefits do you think your learners perceive in learning English
English is learned for many different reasons. It may be an essential tool for education and
business for some learners; it may be the language of travel and related activities of
sightseeing for others; and it may be needed for social survival and employment for new
immigrants in English-speaking countries. For some, it may be a popular language for the
media, entertainment, the internet and other forms of electronic communication. For many,
however, it may merely be a language that they are obliged to study, but which they may nev
-:Q2
Among the factors in this chapter that have promoted the spread of English, can you suggest
the five which you think are most important in establishing the role of English in the country
?(where you teach (or a country where English is a second or foreign language
communication :in many parts of the world ,English had the status of asocial subject.1
The media 3.Education 4.travel 5.Globaization.2
-: Q3

What are the main reasons your students are studying English? Do your students want to
?learn English, or need to learn it
Learners study English for many different reasons, and many have no choice in doing so.
Their reasons for studying English relate to how English impacts on their present or future
lives, and how they understand and perceive the nature and role of English
: Q4
To what extent do you think learners should be exposed to many
different varieties of pronunciation – including examples of the new Englishes referred to
?above
learners may encounter these new varieties of English, they need to be represented in
materials for teaching listening comprehension. There is one group of new Englishes in
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, sometimes referred to as South Asian Englishes.
There is another group in the former British colonies in East and West Africa. Another group
is found in the Caribbean, and there is the group found in South-East Asia – Malaysia,
.Singapore and the Philippines. Then there is a Pacific group, such as Fiji
.(have been called new Englishes (Platt et al., 1984
-: Q5
Language is an important way in which our identity is expressed. What are some ways in
?which personal identity can be expressed through language
 in Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and where Tamil is the local language,
anglicized Tamil – sometimes referred to as Tanglish – is fashionable among young people,
particularly the English educated. Some advocates of Tamil complain that the language is
being threatened by the influx of English words. Young people in Hong Kong, similarly, find it
natural to mix English words into their everyday Cantonese. The mixed code, it has been
suggested, plays an important role in marking out the Hong Kong identity, serving as a
distinctive linguistic and cultural marker of ‘Hong Kongness’. In post-apartheid South Africa,
many black South Africans have adopted a local variety of English, laced with words from
local languages, as a sign of freedom – in contrast to Afrikaans, which they may view as the
language of oppression
-: Q6
Do your students have a preference for a particular accent in English, such as British or
?North American? What do you think are the reasons for their preference

It seems that, for all but a very few people, the accent you end up with, no
matter how high your proficiency level, will be that of your L1, and why should
it be any different? Learners do have a strange perception of the importance
.of accents
-: Q7
?To what extent do your learners want to master a native-like pronunciation
,This is a question of personal choice for learners, and teachers, therefore
should not assume that learners always want to master a native-speaker
,accent when they learn English. As one learner puts it
’?I am Korean, so why should I try to sound like an American‘
:Q8
Is the notion of cosmopolitan English relevant to your teaching
?context
It was simply to recognize that the modified varieties of English which are being used should
be accepted as legitimate varieties that develop through the use of English as an
international language. He argued that the functional capacity of the language is not in fact
being restricted, but it is actually being enhanced, giving its users the opportunity to express
.their own identities through English rather than the socio-cultural identity of others
:Q9
Can you suggest ways in which teachers who are native speakers of English often modify
?their English when teaching to make it more comprehensible to learners
In the past, native speakers of English tended to assume that when they spoke English to
non-native speakers, it was the responsibility of the other person to do their best to
understand native-speaker English. Today, this might be
regarded as a sign of what has been termed ‘cultural imperialism’ and that it is in fact the
responsibility of native speakers to make themselves understood whenthey use English with
.non-native speakers
:One of these is Scaffold
Scaffolding is providing a support for students as they learn new skills or information. For
scaffolding vocabulary, you can
.[Use a graphic organizer to explain concepts and related words. (ie coming soon
Post new vocabulary on a word wall, and review the words daily. Swap out old words as
.necessary
 Label drawings and pictures to help students make the connection between oral and written
English. Point to these
.visuals to clarify meaning when using these words

:Q10
country you are familiar with), and what is its status in the
?national curriculum
The time devoted to it is very limited, large class sizes make teaching difficult and the
curriculum often fosters an exam- oriented or grammar-based approach to teaching. In
China, more than 100 million people are currently studying English. In France, 96% of school
.children are studying English as an elective subject at school
Q11
What is your teaching context? What kinds of students do you teach or plan to teach? What
?are their goals in learning English
The kinds of English courses offered in these contexts depend on the learners’ individual
needs. For example, ‘mainstreaming’ courses seek to prepare school-age learners to study
in primary and secondary schools and to participate in the mainstream curriculum, and are
often content-based (see Chapter 3). Some schools have procedures in place to recruit
international students at high school or college level, since they can be an important source
of revenue forthe school. If students have limited English- language skills on arrival, they are
often given intensive English- language support prior to entering regular classes (or
sometimes parallel with them), to assist them with the language skills needed to master
.content and tasks in English, i.e. to enter the mainstream
:Q12
How significant is the private language school industry in your country? What? kinds of
? students do the schools cater for
Private language schools often represent a response to a recurring problem in many
countries – the ‘false-beginner syndrome’. Children may commence studying English at state
primary schools, but receive only one or two hours of instruction a week. . By the time they
enter secondary school they have retained very little of the language they had learned, so
instruction starts again at beginner level. But due to the limited exposure to English they
often receive at secondary school, and the grammar and exam-based focus of teaching,
.when they leave secondary school their English is still rudimentary
:Q13
Do you think there is any value in drills and similar

? repetition-based exercises in language teaching

Language was taught through extensive drilling and repetition exercises, and through
.making use of activities that minimized the chances of producing mistakes
:Q14
Can you give examples from your own language learning, or that of your learners, of errors
?that reflect transfer from the first language
that where the first language and the target language are similar, learners will generally
acquire structures with ease, and where they are different, learners will have difficulty. CA
was based on the related theory of language transfer: difficulty in second language learning
results from transfer of features of the first language to the second language. Transfer (also
known as interference) was considered the main explanation for learners’ errors. Teachers
were encouraged to spend time on features of English that were most likely to be affected by
 first-language transfer. Today, transfer is considered only one of many possible causes of
.learners’ errors
Why do you think some teachers still feel comfortable using the ?grammar-translation
method Viewed from my own English language-learning experience, I think grammar
translation should not be regarded as a method to be avoided by EFL teachers. There is no
reason why deep understanding of grammar, and good ability to translate, cannot help
students improve their writing or lay a solid foundation for their speaking and communicative
competence, for that matter. On the contrary, a good command of grammar will give an EFL
learner more confidence, among other advantages, to hone his/her communicative
competence. Through translation, EFL learners. Why do you think some teachers still feel
comfortable using the ?grammar-translation method Viewed from my own English
language-learning experience, I think grammar translation should not be regarded as a
method to be avoided by EFL teachers. There is no reason why deep understanding of
grammar, and good ability to translate, cannot help students improve their writing or lay a
solid foundation for their speaking and communicative competence, for that matter. On the
contrary, a good command of grammar will give an EFL learner more confidence, among
other advantages, to hone his/her communicative competence. Through translation, EFL
learners phrases), and better comprehend the original text. It may, therefore, be said that
grammar-translation certainly has a role to play in the Chinese EFL context, where most
students do not

.have exposure to an English-speaking environment.

Q15
Why do you think the direct method is sometimes used to teach? children The direct method
is sometimes still used in teaching English to young children and there are good examples of
teachers using the direct method on the internet. And we probably owe to the direct method
the fact that the use of the mother tongue and translation have been ignored, or downplayed,
in language teaching ever since – something that many language learners find
counter-intuitive. The direct method was used in many private language institutes, such as
those of the Berlitz chain (where it is still used today), where teaching was often one- to-one
.and the teachers were native speakers of the .language
Q16
What sort of skills do you think teachers need to master when using the audiolingual method
?
Techniques that were often employed included memorization of dialogues, question and
answer practice, substitution drills and various forms of guided speaking and writing practice.
Great attention to accurate pronunciation and accurate mastery of grammar was stressed
from the very beginning stages of language learning, since it was assumed that if students
made errors, these would quickly become a permanent part of the learner’s speech. And
much of this practice could be carried out in a language laboratory, where ..little input from
.the teacher was required, rather than in a classroom
Q17
Do you think a P – P – P(Presentation, Practice, Production) lesson format (or a modification
?of it) still has its place in language teaching
Yes , I do The P – P – P lesson structure has been widely used in language-teaching
materials and continues, in modified form, to be used today. Many speaking or
grammar-based lessons in contemporary materials, for example, begin with an introductory
 phase in which new teaching points are presented and illustrated in some way, and where
.the focus .is on comprehension and recognition
Q18
Do you think some of the techniques associated with the audiolingual and situational
methods, such as the memorization of short dialogues, choral and substitution

drills and teacher-led question and answer practice, have a place in language teaching? If
so, why
No, I do not Because suddenly, drills, pattern practice, substitution tables, memorization of
dialogues and other practices associated with audiolingualism and situational language
teaching were no longer popular, as a new ‘communicative’ paradigm in language teaching
emerged. This came to be known as communicative language teaching – the next global
.method – and .was a dominant paradigm in language teaching for the next 20 years
Q19
What kinds of interaction and language use do you think the activities listed In
communicative practice are likely to facilitate ?The essence of CLT is the assumption that
learners learn a language through using it for authentic communication. Drawing on both
interactive and constructivist views of language learning it was assumed that learning would
be an outcome of engaging in meaningful communication. This called for the use of
classroom techniques and activities that required learners to use their communicative
resources and engage in negotiation of meaning (Breen and Candlin, 1980). Activities of this
.kind made use of collaborative learning in pairs or small groups, and included
Q20
what ate some ways in which the strategies used by successtul learners can be identified?
The motivation for much of the research on strategies has been to determine what the most
effective strategies are for particular kinds of learning tasks and to teach students In general,
more effective students used a greater variety of strategies and used them in ways that
helped the students complete the language task successfully. Less effective students not
only had few strategy types in their repertoire but also frequently used strategies that were
.inappropriate to the task
Q21
Learners use dilerent cognitive strategies in order to help
.them understand and Iearn from materials they read
?What strategies do you use for this purpose
Cognitive strategies are ways in which we try to better understand or remember learning
materials or input, such as by

making mental associations, underlining key phrases ina text, making word lists to review
following a lesson and so on. The following is an example :(author's data) When I was
learning Indonesian, I had a great deal of dificulty trying to distinguish kanan (right) and kiri
(left) and always got the two confused, until I used the strategy of mentally reminding myself
that kanan does .NOT contain the letter 'r for 'right Metacognitive strategies are ways in
which learners analyze. prepare for. monitor and organize their own learning. They can
involve the planning a learner does before a classroom activity, monitoring performance
during an activity and evaluating how he or she carries out an activity. For example, a
student might focus on the following kinds of questions in relation to a reading text he or she
has been asked to read :during a reading lesson
Q22
 (How should I approach this reading task? (planning
How did (CBI) & (CLIL) emerged
In 1950s there was a growing demand for courses that prepared .students to study in
English-speaking countries ,In many English-speaking countries, such as the United States
Canada, Britain and Australia, large numbers of students whose mother tongue is not
English (international students, immigrants) need English in order to enter schools, colleges
and universities, and to follow content .courses in English This provided the motivation for an
approach to language teaching known initially as content-based instruction (CBI) and, more
(recently referred to in Europe as content and language integrated learning, or (CLIL
Q23
country you are familiar with), and what is its status in the national curriculum? The time
devoted to it is very limited, large class sizes make teaching difficult and the curriculum often
fosters an examoriented or grammar-based approach to teaching. In China, more than 100
million people are currently studying English. In France, 96% of school children are studying
English as an elective subject at school
Q24
What is your teaching context? What kinds of students do you teach or plan to teach? What
?are their goals in learning English
The kinds of English courses offered in these contexts

depend on the learners’ individual needs. For example, ‘mainstreaming’ courses seek to
prepare school-age learners to study in primary and secondary schools and to participate in
the mainstream curriculum, and are often content-based (see Chapter 3). Some schools
have procedures in place to recruit international students at high school or college level,
since they can be an important source of revenue for the school. If students have limited
English language skills on arrival, they are often given intensive English language support
prior to entering regular classes (or sometimes parallel with them), to assist them with the
.language skills needed to master content and tasks in English, i.e. to enter the mainstream
Q25
How significant is the private language school industry in your country? What? kinds of
students do the schools cater for ? Private language schools often represent a response to a
recurring problem in many countries – the ‘false-beginner
primary schools, but receive only one or two hours of instruction a week. . By the time they
enter secondary school they have retained very little of the language they had learned, so
instruction starts again at beginner level. But due to the limited exposure to English they
often receive at secondary school, and the grammar and exam-based focus of teaching,
.when they leave secondary school their English is still rudimentary
Q26
Do you think there is any value in drills and similar repetition-based exercises in language
? teaching
Language was taught through extensive drilling and repetition exercises, and through
.making use of activities that minimized the chances of producing mistakes
Q27
Can you give examples from your own language learning, or that of your learners, of errors
?that reflect transfer from the first language
that where the first language and the target language are similar, learners will generally
acquire structures with ease, and where they are different, learners will have difficulty. CA
:was based on the related theory of language transfer
 difficulty in second language learning results from transfer of features of the first language to
the second language. Transfer (also known as interference) was considered the main
explanation for learners’ errors. Teachers were encouraged to spend time on features of
English that were most likely to be affected by first-language transfer. Today, transfer is
.considered only one of many possible causes of learners’ errors
Q28
The following learner sentences can be regarded as evidence of the creative- construction
hypothesis. What language learning process do you think they illustrate? the original focus of
the creative-construction hypothesis, as a creative process drawing on different cognitive
.processes, is still part of contemporary SLA theory
Q29
What prior knowledge do you think you would draw on when reading a text called ‘A visit to
?’the dentist
Prior knowledge has a crucial part to play in constructivist learning. An existing schema
represents the sum of an individual’s current state of knowledge and understanding of the
topic in question. New learning concerned with the topic will involve the process of
assimilation (adding new information) and accommodation (adding new information and
altering existing structures) and the expansion of and increase in complexity of the schema
in question
Q30
Can you think of examples of language knowledge that people generally acquire as implicit
knowledge? The implications of the distinction between explicit and implicit learning can be
:summarized as
Presentation of explicit knowledge facilitates understanding and awareness of the nature of●
language and how language is used
.Explicit knowledge can become implicit knowledge, through practice ●.
.Procedural knowledge is based on practice in using both explicit and implicit knowledge●
Q31

Teachers provide models for learners, but so do other learners. If the language that learners
hear from other learners is not accurate, do you think such modelling can have a negative
effect, and if so, how do you minimize it? The teaching of many aspects of language use
reflects a difference between implicit and explicit knowledge, particularly in relation to the
ways speaking and writing are sometimes taught. An example is in the way that different text
types such as recounts, descriptions and reports are taught (see Chapters 15 and 16).
Initially, learners study examples of texts and study how they are organized. This information
is typically provided as ‘rules’ and presented explicitly. Students then ‘practise’ applying the
rules in creating texts of their own that reflect the rules. It is assumed that, over time, these
will become part of implicit knowledge. However, the ‘rules’ can also be accessed if
.necessary during the process of constructing or revising texts
Q32
give examples of features of English which are a) easy and b) difficult to notice? The extent
to which a learner notices new features of language in the input (for example, the use of the
past perfect tense in a narrative) may depend upon how frequently the item is encountered,
how salient or ‘noticeable’ it is, whether the teacher has drawn attention to it or the nature of
the activity the learner is taking part in
Q33
 Can you think of other examples of things you have learned and where you have moved
from controlled to automatic processing in building a complex skill? This is called controlled
processing (Ellis, 1994). Over time, skills can become automatic and do not require
conscious attention. This is called automatic processing. Learning involves development
from controlled to automatic processing, i.e. the cumulative learning of lower-level skills. For
example, when pianists learn to play a new piece of music, they often initially study the score
.to make decisions about fingering, phrasing and so on
Q34
Can you think of other examples of where language routines are learned through
participation in social or real-world activities ? the meaning of which was clear from the
context

and from the customer’s response. The routine was added to my Spanish speech repertoire.
In the same way, through sharing meals in restaurants with Spanish-speaking friends and
colleagues over several weeks, I was able to quickly master the language and routines
.needed to order in Spanish from a menu
Q35
Scaffolding can take place between teacher and learner, and between two or more learners.
Do you think scaffolding also occurs between learners of roughly the same level when they
carry out an activity? Scaffolding refers to this process of mediation. Initially, learners
depend on others with more experience than themselves and gradually take on more
responsibility, over time, for their own learning, in joint activity (Lave and Wenger, 1991). In
the classroom, scaffolding is the process of interaction between two or more people as they
carry out a classroom activity, and where one person (e.g. the teacher or another learner)
has more advanced knowledge than the other (the learner) (Swain et al., 2010). During the
process, discourse is jointly created through the process of assisted or mediated
performance, and interaction proceeds as a kind of joint problem-solving between teacher
and student. For example, in a classroom setting, the teacher assists the learners in
completing learning activities by observing what they are capable of and providing a series
of guided stages through the task. Collaborative dialogue ‘scaffolds’ the learning process by
initially providing support (the ‘scaffold’) and gradually removing support as learning
.develops
Q36
Learners use different cognitive strategies in order to help them understand and learn from
materials they read. What strategies do you use for this purpose? Cognitive strategies are
ways in which we try to better understand or remember learning materials or input, such as
.by making mental
associations, underlining key phrases in a text, making word lists to review following a
lesson and so on. Metacognitive strategies are ways in which learners analyze, prepare for,
monitor and organize their own learning. They can involve the planning a learner does
before a classroom activity, monitoring performance during an activity and evaluating

how he or she carries out an activity. Social strategies are actions the learner initiates in
order to increase the amount of interaction and practice he or she can have with speakers of
a language. For example, a learner may deliberately avoid spending time with people who
share his or her mother tongue so that he or she has more opportunities to use English.
Affective strategies are actions the learner takes to control the emotional conditions involved
 in language learning, i.e. to reduce anxiety or stress when trying to use the language. For
.example, a learner may find it helps to listen to music while he or she is doing homework
Q37
What are some ways in which the strategies used by successful language ? learners can be
identified? The motivation for much of the research on strategies has been to determine
what the most effective strategies are for particular kinds of learning tasks and to teach
students to use effective strategies (Oxford, 2011). This was prompted by O’Malley and
Chamot’s (1990: 140) finding that: In general, more effective students used a greater variety
of strategies and used them in ways that helped the students complete the language task
successfully. Less effective students not only had few strategy types in their repertoire but
also frequently used strategies that were inappropriate to the task. Teaching learners to use
effective strategies is known as learner training or strategy training. Strategy training raises a
:number of issues
?Are strategies the same across different cultures●
?Are strategies consciously employed or implicit●
Does successful strategy use depend on which strategies are used, how often they are●
?used or how well they are used
Q38
Widdowson discusses the importance of authentic learning processes. What would be an
?example of an authentic and an inauthentic process
Widdowson, argued that it is not important if classroom materials themselves are derived
from specially created texts and other forms of input, as long as the learning processes they
facilitate are authentic. Negotiation of meaning, noticing and the movement from controlled
to automatic processing

are examples of authentic learning processes, and these can be facilitated by classroom
materials and activities that are specially designed with these processes in mind. However,
since the advent of CLT, textbooks and other teaching materials have taken on a much more
‘authentic’ look, reading passages are designed to look like magazine articles (if they are
not, in fact, adapted from magazine articles), and textbooks are designed to similar
.standards of production as real-world sources, such as popular magazines
Q/39
What do you think are some ways in which the right kind of comprehensible input can be
?provided in teaching
In view of the interest Krashen and Terrell’s somewhat radical proposal attracted, .
numerous articles as well as full- length books were devoted to debating it, some rejecting
both the theory and research Krashen used in support of the principles of the natural
approach (e.g. Gregg, 1984; McGlaughlin, 1978), as well as its practical applications.
However, in California at least, policy changes in recent years have made the natural
approach unsuited to the needs of teachers in public schools. As with public education in
many other countries, teachers are now required to teach to standards that specify the
.language skills learners need to develop at different stages in the school curriculum
Q40
Do you think teachers who teach ESP courses need different kinds of knowledge and skills
?from teachers who teach general English courses
ESP courses soon began to appear addressing the language needs of university students,
nurses, engineers, restaurant staff, doctors, hotel staff, airline pilots and so on. The
methodology used to teach these courses was not prescribed, although often it was
 generally based on CLT and also reflected the skill-based and performance-based
approaches. Clark (1987: 197) suggests that the influence of these approaches was
reflected in the design of courses like these, since they first identify a set of target behaviors
to be acquired (skills, functional ability, etc.), which are broken down into smaller units – that
is, small elements of knowledge and part-skills

Identify some of the competencies you think students would need to master in English in -
:order to function in the following situations
.As a tour guide. ● As a nurse ●
.As an English teacher ●
Auerbach (1986) identified eight features involved in the implementation of CBLT programs .
:in language teaching, in its early days, and which are true of many such programs today
A focus on successful functioning in society: The goal is to enable students to become -
.autonomous individuals capable of coping with the demands of the world
A focus on life skills: Rather than teaching language in isolation, CBLT teaches language -
as a function of communication about concrete tasks. Students are only taught those
language forms/skills required by the situations in which they will function. These forms are
.normally determined by needs analysis
Task, or performance-oriented, instruction: What counts is what students can do as a result -
of instruction. The emphasis is on overt behaviours, rather than on knowledge or the ability
.to talk about language and skills
Modularized instruction: Language learning is broken down into meaningful chunks. -
Objectives are broken down into narrowly focused sub-objectives so that both teachers and
.students can get a clear sense of progress
Outcomes are made explicit: Outcomes are public knowledge, known and agreed upon by -
both learner and teacher. They are specified in terms of behavioral objectives so that
.students know what behaviors are expected of them
Continuous and ongoing assessment: Students are pre-tested to determine what skills they -
lack, and post-tested after instruction on that skill. If they do not achieve the desired level of
.mastery, they continue to work on the objective and are retested
Demonstrated mastery of performance objectives: Rather than in the traditional -
paperand-pencil tests, assessment is based on the ability to demonstrate pre-specified
behaviors. Part 1 English language teaching today 80 8 Individualized, student-centred
,instruction: In content, level and pace

objectives are defined in terms of individual needs; prior learning and achievement are taken
into account in developing curriculums. Instruction is not time-based; students' progress at
.their own rates and concentrate on just those areas in which they lack competence
Q/41
What type of content is most likely to be of interest or relevance to your learners or to a
group of learners you are familiar with? How could relevant content be chosen for these
?learners
:knowledge they can share. When deciding how to compose groups for a project, you should
.Decide how to configure groups
.Identify characteristics of group members relevant to the project’s learning objectives
.Decide who has the responsibility for selecting group members
.Develop a contingency plan in case group membership changes during the project
:There are two main factors to consider when configuring groups
 Size. Small groups tend to work efficiently because it is easier to coordinate efforts and
schedules among fewer people. However, although large groups have higher coordination
costs, they can theoretically accomplish larger and more complex projects. Some experts
claim that groups of more than five or six students tend to be unmanageable, but there are
no firm rules. Like other aspects of group work, the size of a group should be shaped by the
.project’s learning objectives
Roles. Some projects require that each group member plays a specialized role to mimic
workplace environments (e.g., project manager, data analyst, writer). Some instructors
specify the roles that must be represented in every group and then allow students to join
groups based on their strengths. It should be noted that if a course goal is for students to
learn to play different roles, the opposite strategy might be effective: you can assign students
.to roles that move them out of their comfort zone and develop new skills
Identify relevant characteristics of group members
The characteristics of group members can influence how effectively students achieve the
learning objectives of the project. There is no single set of relevant characteristics for group
members because it depends on your course, your goals, your students, and the nature of
.the project. Come talk to us so we can discuss the best approach for you
:Below are common characteristics to consider when composing groups

Prior knowledge, previous experiences, and skills. If you want to structure groups to
distribute particular types of knowledge (e.g., programming skills, design expertise,
experience with historical research) across groups, you can assess students’ prior
knowledge or ask them to complete a skills inventory. In some interdisciplinary courses,
instructors use a student’s major as a proxy for prior knowledge. Keep in mind, too, that
.skills relevant to group projects may be interpersonal as well as. discipline-based
Motivation. Students have different levels of motivation within a course: some prioritize the
work for a project in order to excel, some are content to receive the minimum passing grade,
some are taking the course because of genuine interest, and some are taking the course to
satisfy a requirement. Mixing students with different motivations within a group can cause
tensions and problems. To counter this, some instructors group students by motivation.
Distributing a questionnaire in which students reflect on their motivation, work habits, and
desired grade—and then share the questionnaires with each other, but not with the instructor
.– can help students identify classmates they would work well with
Diversity of perspectives. If one of the project’s learning objectives is to become familiar with
multiple perspectives, you can compose diverse groups. We often think about diversity in
terms of gender, culture, race/ethnicity, and native language, but you might also consider the
relevance of socioeconomic, political, geographic, and other differences to the project’s
learning objectives. However, it is important to make sure that there is critical mass in every
group so that lone members of a particular social category (e.g., race, gender) do not find
themselves isolated in a group. For example, in a class that has four women and four
groups, instead of placing one woman in each group, consider putting two women in two
.groups
Students’ familiarity with each other. Students who have worked together effectively in
groups before may be more likely to work together effectively again. Before students are
placed in groups, you can ask students if they have worked effectively with classmates on
previous group projects. If you want students to focus more on the product than the process
of group work, this may be a relevant characteristic. Similarly, if you are assigning another
group project later in the course, or expect to in a future course that the students may enroll
 in, it may be useful to group students in a way that meets the present project’s learning
.objectives and prepares students to work together again in the future
Personality. Students’ tendencies to act as extraverts or introverts are relevant to the roles
that may be defined formally or develop informally. For example, an extraverted student may
seem like a natural choice as a group leader for running group meetings. However, an
introverted student who is detail-oriented may also be an effective group leader for ensuring
that other

group members are on schedule. If one of your course goals is to help students develop the
skills required for different roles, consider assigning or encouraging students to choose roles
.in which they have less experience or proficiency
Q/42
Have you ever had a teaching or learning experience involving theme-based language
instruction, sheltered subject-matter instruction or adjunct instruction? If so, what were some
?of the pros and cons of this experience
The teacher, in conjunction with a sales-and-marketing specialist, first identifies key topics
and issues in the area of sales and marketing, to provide the framework for the course. A
variety of lessons are then developed, focusing on reading, oral presentation skills, group
discussion, grammar and report writing, all of which are developed out of the themes and
topics which form the basis of the course. Many courses for immigrant children in English-
speaking countries are organized around an adjunct-based CBI framework. For example,
non-English-background children in schools in Australia and New Zealand are usually
offered an intensive language course to prepare them to follow the regular school curriculum
.with other children. Such a course might be organized around a CBI approach
Q/43
Think of learners studying English for a specific purpose. What text types do you think they
?will encounter
The syllabus also usually specifies other components of texts, such as grammar, vocabulary,
topics and functions; hence, it is a type
of mixed syllabus, one which integrates reading, writing and oral communication, and which
teaches grammar through the mastery of texts, rather than in isolation. A text-based
approach also reflects the notion of scaffolder learning in which the teacher has the role of
an expert who provides the scaffolding, or support, that is necessary for learners to master
.the use of different types of texts
Q/44
What might some typical characteristics be of teachers in the context in which you
?completed your schooling
The nature of what we mean by competence, or skill, in teaching is not always easy to define
because conceptions of good teaching differ from culture to culture (Tsui, 2009). In some
cultures, a good teacher is one who controls and directs learners and who maintains a
respectful distance between the teacher and the learners. Learners are more or less the
passive recipients of the teacher’s expertise. Teaching is viewed as a teacher-controlled and
directed process. In other cultures, the teacher may be viewed more as a facilitator. The
ability to form close interpersonal relations with students is highly valued, and there is a
strong emphasis on individual learner creativity and independent learning. Students may
even be encouraged to question and
 challenge what the teacher says. The way a person teaches, and his or her view of what
good teaching is, will, therefore, reflect his or her cultural background and personal history,
.the context in which he or she is working, and the kind of students in his or her class
Q/45
What are some aspects of teaching that can be learned from experience? What are some
?that you think are not easy to learn from experience alone
Good teaching from a training perspective is viewed as the mastery of this set of skills or
competencies. Experiencing teaching in a variety of different situations, with different kinds
of learners and teaching different kinds of content, is how a repertoire of basic teaching skills
is acquired. Barr and Dreeben (1983) argued that experience is the primary source of the
practical knowledge teachers acquire. As they add to their teaching experience they acquire
knowledge and skills related to the grouping of students, the different kinds of content they
are required to teach, methods of teaching and the use of teaching materials, and how to
manage a class effectively. Barr and Dreeben (1983) further identify how the first year or two
of teaching is crucial in a teacher’s development and the primary period in which teaching
skills are developed, since this period marks the break between having no experience and
.the point at which the teacher assumes responsibility for teaching a class