Didactic Concepts

➢ method : is a practical application of an approach. A theory is put into practice at the

level of a method. It includes decisions about; the particular skills to be taught, the roles of the
teacher and the learner in language teaching and learning, the appropriate procedures and
techniques, the content to be taught, and the order in which the content will be presented.
➢ Procedures: are described as the ordered set of techniques. They are the step-by-step
measures to execute a method. (They are the ordered step-by-step events that have specific
outcomes). A procedure is smaller than a method and larger than a technique.
➢ technique : is part and parcel of procedures. They are the actual moment-to-moment
classroom steps that lead to a specific outcome. Every procedure is realized through a series
of techniques. They could take the form of an exercise or just any other activity you have to
do to complete a task.
➢ Drills: exercises which are meant to practice a certain language item such as repetition,
sentence transformation, gap-filling, or matching… substitution drills (e.g. my favourite
school subject is English, what about you?). mechanical practice (repeat words,
dialogues…).
➢ Functions: are fixed phrases and expressions which are used to convey communicative
purposes, language items such as ‘requesting’, ‘suggesting’, or ‘asking for
advice’,‘apologising’… which are called speech acts.
➢ Miming: to show what a character does by using gestures and body movements.
➢ Authentic materials: set of materials including: texts, audio-tracks, videos…etc. which
are originally created for real-life uses, but can be used for the learning process.
➢ Notions: are general concepts expressed through language, the latter’s items such as
‘telling time’, or ‘speaking about distance’, space, quality…
➢ Realia: objects like pens, fruits, clothes, etc. which a teacher can use to present new
vocabulary items.
➢ Visual aids: set of teaching tools that satisfy the needs of visual learners, e.g. pictures,
graphs, videos, flashcards…etc.).
➢ Recycling: a teaching method in which the teacher review vocabulary or skills that have
already been taught by including them in meaningful activities in subsequent lessons.
➢ Learner training: is teaching learners how best to learn. It includes encouraging them
to think about how they record vocabulary and how to continue their learning outside
the classroom.
➢ Learner Centredness: is a new concept developed with the cognitivist theory, it
assumes that the learner should be the centre of the learning and teaching process. The
approach in which Ss are actively engaged, and the teacher plays the role of the monitor
and classroom manager.
➢ Chunks: are fixed or semi-fixed expressions learned and retrieved as whole units and
employed on specific occasions. E.g. collocations such as ‘I’m fine’, ‘pretty good’, right
away… fixed expressions used in different situations.
➢ Learning strategies: account for how learners cope with learning problems,
accumulate new language rules and how they automize existing ones.
➢ Intertextuality: the level of difficulty in a written passage.
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➢ Skill: the effect or change that results from an instructional activity program.
➢ Warm-up: are prearranged activities that are often fun and enjoyable for students.
warm ups are typically used to make students feel at ease and to help them engage in
the process of learning. Activities which are done at the beginning of the lesson to set a
language environment. It sets the context of a new lesson or reviews what was taught in
previous lessons.
➢ The humanistic approach: involves learners at all levels and focuses on their
personalities as a whole.
➢ Textbooks used in the teaching of English in Morocco are mainly theme-based.
➢ Humanistic activities: activities which emphasize the whole person and acceptance of
their values and emotions. There are four methods (SW, CLL, S, TPR) in which we
involve humanistic activities e.g. songs, plays, music to get Ss feel at ease and eliminate
anxiety).
➢ Integrated skills: language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing), bringing
together different language skills.
➢ Intensive reading: a careful reading to obtain specific information from a text which is
usually a short one.
➢ Interaction: patterns of communication, could be verbal or non-verbal patterns.
➢ Jigsaw reading: an activity which involves re-ordering a mixed-up text to find correct
order (Ss have to see the connection between parts of the written text) it promotes group
work, and collaborative learning among Ss.
➢ Jigsaw: a structured activity that is characteristic of cooperative learning. When using
jigsaw in the class, teachers arrange their students into groups and invite each member
of these groups to look for different information about the same topic. Students are then
required to share the information they find with the members of their group. The activity.
promotes peer-teaching, group work, and fosters the acquisition and development of
various social and communicative skills.
➢ Mixed-ability class: a group of learners whose proficiency levels are different,
(beginners, advanced, low/high intermediate).
➢ Micro-teaching: a teaching situation which has been reduced in terms of ‘duration’ of
the lessons, class size… this type of teaching is often used in training situations. (e.g.
teach vocabulary ‘body parts’, we focus on one activity.
➢ Monitoring: while Ss are doing a task often in groupwork/ in pairs, a teacher walks
around the class, checks their mistakes, help them, also answer their enquiries. After
assigning a task, the teacher moves around the classroom to check whether Ss are on
the task or not.
➢ Lexical items: a group of related words, or a word family. E.g. furniture: chair, table,
tv, sofa…etc.)
➢ Accuracy: the ability to produce language in grammatically correct way. Talking
without making mistakes in grammar. (precision in communication).
➢ Fluency: the ability to produce language easily to communicate quickly, but not
necessarily with grammar correctness. (speaking without paying attention to grammar
mistakes).
➢ Feedback: In teaching, feedback refers to comments or other information that learners
receive concerning their success on learning tasks or tests, either from the teacher or
other persons, feedback can either be written or oral. Comments, information that is

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given to learners about their spoken or written performance, or task, test, or to trainees
or teachers about their teaching.
➢ Elicitation: a procedure where a teacher gets learners to produce language, draws
information out of the learners. It is also considered a subskill by which the teacher
guides Ss to find the target word instead of giving it to them. (through asking guided
questions and let Ss find the answer). This is based on the discovery approach: Ss
discover vocabulary items by themselves= constructivism: Ss should construct
knowledge by themselves. “asking Ss to provide information and examples based on
what they already know.
➢ Group Dynamic: the way a group of people interact with each other.
➢ Body language: non-verbal communication, the way someone communicates a
message with their body. For instance, eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, miming.
➢ Cloze: a technique used commonly in teaching reading and listening where words, are
removed from a text and replaced by gaps.
➢ Brainstorming: collecting together ideas very quickly without judging whether the
ideas are good and relevant or not. (in writing), jotting down whatever ideas coming to
the mind of the teacher or Ss.
➢ Facilitator: an assistant to or a guide of a group who helps the group to find their own
answers rather than providing them with the right ones.
➢ Concept Checking: in teaching vocabulary, a technique in which teachers check the
learners’ “comprehension of a new concept by asking related question”, a teacher
checks if the Ss have grasped the newly presented structure or vocabulary items.
➢ Information transfer activity: an activity in which a learner has to move information
from one place to another. E.g. Ss have to complete a table according to information on
a map.
➢ Testing tools: the means of assessment a teacher uses to assess Ss’ performance. E.g.
quizzes, cloze tests, multiple choice tasks, exercises, presentations, portfolios…
Norm referenced test: a type of tests in which the performance of a learner is
related
to the overall performances of other competitors, e.g. master program/ teaching exam.
➢ Criterion referenced test: a type of tests whose grading criterion is specified at 10/20,
e.g. bac exam.
➢ Holistic scoring: the teacher gives Ss overall assessment score for the paper as a whole,
e.g. writing, based on the teacher’s impression.
➢ Analytic scoring: a teacher provides Ss with at least a rating score for each criterion,
(spelling, grammar, spelling, relevance of ideas…).
➢ Rubrics: the criteria upon which Ss performance is graded.
➢ Item: generally, it is a sentence or an element used in a test and is intended to test
students’ ability, e.g. instruction in each question: filling the blanks with the correct
words, choose the best titles…).
➢ Standard: is both a goal and a unit of measuring progress toward that goal.
➢ Input: is the verbal or written language students are exposed to while learning a new
language. It is usually contrasted with language output, which is students’ use of
language productively in its oral and written forms.
➢ Input (i+1): in Krashen’s theory of SLA, “i” represents a learner’s current level of
➢ competence, and “i + 1” the stage just beyond it. According to Krashen, learners of

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language.
➢ must be exposed to language input that is slightly beyond their level.
➢ Intake: refers to the language that learners internalize (take in) while being exposed to
language input. (during the explanation of a teacher, Ss take vocabulary words, or a
structure, what Ss take in each lesson explanation).
➢ Circumlocution: when the learner is using many words instead of one to explain an
idea. In short, giving extra details to transmit the message.
➢ Metalanguage: the language is used to talk about language. (learning theories = we use
metalanguage).
➢ Previewing/ Surveying: looking at the pictures provided in the text, reading titles and
subtitles to get the general idea of the text.
➢ Inferring: guess about something from a text. Ss get it from their understanding of the
text. (reading between the lines) something that’s not mentioned in the text. Using what
you know to make a guess about what you do not know.
➢ Skimming/ reading for gist: quick reading of the text to get the main idea.
➢ Scanning: reading the text thoroughly to find a specific information.
➢ Predicting: previewing the text and give anticipations on what the text will be about.
➢ Top-down: is a language process strategy that relies on students’ ‘prior knowledge’ =
Schemata in understanding new texts or scripts.
➢ Bottom-up: is a language processing strategy that is commonly used in reading. In it,
students start with analysing the smallest units of language; words, sentences, and
chunks, and try to understand the text on the basis of these linguistic units.
➢ Contextualization: using vocabulary items in a meaningful context.
➢ SQ4R: it is a reading strategy that involves five stages; Surveying the text in search of
a gist, asking questions, reading and answering the previously-asked inquiries, reciting
the main ideas or points of the text, reviewing the main ideas of each section of the text
and the main ideas of the text in its entirety, and reflecting about the significance of the
text to you. These five stages are abbreviated as SQ4R.
➢ Brainstorming: when learners generate ideas about the topic.
➢ Editing: is when learners work on their writing products to correct spelling, punctuation
and grammar mistakes. It can be self-editing or peer-editing.
Checklist: a list provided by the teacher to identify the areas Ss should focus on
while
correcting their mistakes.
➢ Schemata: refers to leaner’s existing background and knowledge. It is a term best
described by Guy Cook (1989) as “our pre-existent knowledge of the world”, the plural
form is schemes.
➢ Schemes: every child is born with innate cognitive structures that enable him/her to
interact with the external world. E.g. biting, sucking, throwing, banging…
➢ Scaffolding: refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move Ss
progressively toward stronger understanding and ultimately greater independence in the
learning process. To put it differently, it means assistance, help and support and
guidance that teachers provide for learners in order to accomplish a task, activity,
exercises, instructions, pictures, example of any material which help Ss understand a
certain task. Supporting learners in solving learning problems. (provide Ss with support
throughout their learning).

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➢ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): the distance between the actual development
level and the level of potential development. In other words, it is a gap between what Ss
know and what they don’t know, in which point the teacher should give tasks. So, the
lesson should be challenging and should be slightly higher than their current level of
understanding (it has to be in the ZPD). In short, tasks given to Ss shouldn’t go beyond
their zone of proximal development.
➢ Adaptation: is the process of adjusting schemes in response to the environment by
means of assimilation and accommodation.
➢ Assimilation: understanding new experiences in terms of existing schemes. All infants
or babies have inner schemes, e.g. if we give a baby a glass, pen, laptop… s/he has
mental schemes which dictate on him/her how s/he should deal with these objects. So,
s/he either throw them, suck them, grasp them…
➢ Accommodation: modifying the existing schemes to fit new situations. When a baby
threw a cup, the mother would shout on him. So, s/he realizes what s/he has done is
wrong. Hence, s/he has to adapt and adjust.
➢ Equilibration: the process of restoring balance between present understanding and new
experiences. E.g. in primary school, we were taught that 1-2 is impossible, but in middle
school we discovered that it’s possible. So, when the teacher explains it, equilibration
takes place.
➢ Communicative Competence: As Hymes suggests, communicative competence refers
to learners’ knowledge of grammatical competence (knowledge of grammar,
phonology, and semantics of language), sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of how
to use language and respond to different speech acts, such as requests. Knowledge of
which address forms to use and in which context, you cannot say “It is funny, when you
are in funeral), discourse competence (knowing how to begin and end a conversation),
Strategic Competence (knowledge of communicative strategies, like; I mean and mm
and others, to compensate for weaknesses in communication). Hymes summarizes this
in saying that goes like this, “Knowing when and how to say what to whom”.
➢ Competence: Chomsky refers to competence as “the system of rules that represent a
learner’s knowledge of the language”. Competence is often contrasted with
performance. The latter is the practical use of the former.
➢ Competency: is a set of skills, abilities, and knowledge that students or learners use in
order to accomplish a particular task.
➢ Reviews: while icebreakers pave the way for the learning process, reviews are generally
used at the end of a session. They are used to reinforce key concepts or topics that were
previously covered. Like icebreakers, they are activities that are specifically designed
to make the learning experience enjoyable and stress-free. E.g. in order to reinforce
some key words that were formerly taught, a teacher may bring a ball to the classroom,
says a word related to the theme covered, and passes it to another student, who in turn
passes to another one and say a word, and the activity goes on.
➢ Intonation: when speaking, we change the pitch of our voices and put stress on
particular sounds to express our emotions or attitudes. This is what is generally referred
to as intonation.
➢ Recognition exercises: are exercises in which students are required to only recognize
the correct answers out of a variety of options. For example, “match the following words
with their meanings, a list of meanings is provided on the side”.

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➢ Productive exercises: are exercises in which students are instructed to produce
answers, instead of being given options to choose from.
➢ Praise: is a mighty tool that reinforces positive behaviours in the classroom. Teachers
usually congratulate their students for participating in the process of learning, scoring
good grades, and for simply behaving properly. Praise, if used appropriately, is a
powerful tool that helps increase students’ motivation and hard work.
➢ Consciousness-Raising: or awareness raising, is a process that learners go through
when they are learning a new language. Learners first become aware of the language
(e.g. must), recognize and distinguish it when they hear it, and are able to produce it.
➢ Noticing: when learners "notice" new language, for example a word, they pay special
attention to its form, use and meaning. Consequently, it becomes part of their intake.
➢ A skill: the ability to do something that comes from experience, training or practice
(learning in the classroom).
➢ A sub-skill: the ability to do something of each skill, e.g. skimming, editing, fluency.
➢ Reinforcer: a pleasurable consequence that maintains or increases and strengthen a
behaviour.
➢ Negative reinforcer: release from an unpleasant situation given to strengthen a
behaviour.
➢ Presentation punishment/ reprimand: an aversive stimulus following a behaviour,
used to decrease the chances that a behaviour will occur again.
➢ Removal punishment: withdrawal of a pleasant consequence that is reinforcing a
behaviour, designed to decrease the chances that the behaviour will recur.
➢ Extensive reading: involves learners reading texts for enjoyment and to develop
general reading skills.
➢ Intensive reading: means reading in details with specific learning aims and tasks.
➢ Language: is a set of rules, a code, a system of communication. Language is a system
of sounds and words that is used by humans to communicate and express ideas and
feelings using movements, symbols and sounds. “It is a rule-governed system”.
One of the major functions of language is communication.
➢ Communication: the activity or process of expressing ideas and feelings between the
sender and the receiver. It is sending and receiving the information between two people
or more.
➢ Grammar: is the structure and the system of a language in general, usually considered
to consist of syntax and morphology. “M. F. U. P.= Meaning, Form, Use,
Pronunciation”.
➢ Proverbs & Idioms: are fixed expressions which go together and are understood as a
whole. Proverbs are didactic which means they are designed to teach people moral
lessons.
Tag Questions: inverted subject-verb expression used to confirm the content of the
conversation.
➢ Learning: is a relatively permanent change in the behaviour of an individual based on
his/her experiences or discoveries.
➢ Teaching: means to give someone knowledge or to instruct or train them. To show
somebody how to do something, or to change somebody’s ideas.
➢ Tense: is the expression of location in time of an action or state. There are three tenses
in English: present, past and future.

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➢ Aspect: is the expression of duration (temporal structure of an action or state). It
indicates how an action, state or an event is related to the flow of time. There are four
aspects in English: simple, progressive, perfect simple and perfect progressive.
➢ Exercise: is a way of practicing what has been presented, e.g. fill in the blanks,
matching, rewrite sentences…
➢ Task: is a synthetic way of handling content; it presents samples of language organised
into the purpose for which Ss need to learn a language, but allows them to find the
patterns or structures. E.g.: in groups an action plan which you think will bring about
positive changes in your school. (Gateway 2, p.45).