University of Basrah

Department of English language

Course: Stylistics/ (2024 -2025)
Presented to: Prof. Dr. Majeed H. Jassim
Name: Hiba Kareem Shya’a
Title:An Approach, Method and Technique

Approach: people use the term approach to refer to theories about the nature of language and
language learning which are the source of the way things are done in the classroom and which
provide the reasons for doing them. An approach describes how language is used and how its
constituent parts interlock - it offers a model of language competence. An approach describes
how people acquire their knowledge of the language and makes statements about the conditions
which will promote successful language learning.

• Method: a method is the practical realisation of an approach. The originators of a method have
arrived at decisions about types of activities, roles of teachers and learners, the kinds of material
which will be helpful and some model of syllabus organisation. Methods include various
procedures and techniques (see below) as part of their standard fare.

When methods have fixed procedures, informed by a clearly articulated approach, they are easy
to describe. However, if a method takes procedures and techniques from a wide range of
sources (some of which are used in other methods or are informed by other beliefs), it is more
difficult to continue describing it as a 'method'. We will return to this discussion when we
discuss postmethod realities in B2.

• Procedure: a procedure is an ordered sequence of techniques. For example, a popular dictation

procedure starts when students are put in small groups. Each group then sends one
representative to the front of the class to read (and remember) the first line of a poem which has
been placed on a desk there. Each student then goes back to their respective group and dictates
that line. Each group then sends a second student up to read the second line.

The procedure continues until one group has written the whole poem (see Example 5 in Chapter
19C).

A procedure is a sequence which can be described in terms such as First you do this, then you
do that .... Smaller than a method, it is bigger than a technique.

• Technique: a common technique when using video or film material is called silent viewing
(see Chapter 18, B1). This is where the teacher plays the video with no sound. Silent viewing is
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a single activity rather than a sequence, android as such is a technique rather than a whole
procedure. Likewise the finger technique is used by some teachers; they hold up their handsIn
describing methods, the difference between a philosophy of language teaching at the level of
theory and principles and a set of derived procedures for teaching a language is central. In an
attempt to clarify this difference, a scheme was proposed by the American applied linguist
Edward Anthony in 1963. He identified three levels of conceptualization and organization,
which he termed approach, method, and technique:

The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that techniques carry out a method
which is consistent with an approach. An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing
with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the
nature of the subject matter to be taught.

Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which
contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach. An approach is axiomatic, a
method is procedural. Within one approach, there can be many methods.

A technique is implementational - that which actually takes place in a classroom.

It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective.

Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as
well.

(Anthony 1963: 63-7)

According to Anthony's model, approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs about
language and language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory is put into
practice and at which choices are made about the particular skills to be taught, the content to be
taught, and the order in which the content will be presented; technique is the level at which
classroom procedures are described.

Approach , method , and technique are taught in the stated order , since graphic symbols must
be seen before they are produced , and thus reading , in a sense , is actually a first step in
learning to write in literary English . Anthony's definition of " approach." Do you have, or are
you aware of, assumptions about:

 the nature of language.

 the nature of language teaching and learning .

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An approach refers to theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve as
the source of practices and principles in language teaching. In other words, it refers to the
"philosophy," or belief system, that a method reflects.

The approach, again, is aural-oral. The methods are frequently called mim-mem (mimic-
memorize) and pattern practice. Both share the factor of goal. They aim at automatic oral
production coupled with skill in understanding the stream of speech. They can function best
under intensive course conditions.

The last term which will be discussed is technique. A technique is implemented when
something actually takes place in a classroom. It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance
used to accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be consistent with a method and
therefore in harmony with an approach as well. Techniques depend on the teacher, his
individual artistry, and on the composition of the class. Particular problems can be tackled
equally successfully by the use of different techniques. For example, in teaching the difference
between the pronunciation of English (l) and Russian (r) to some oriental students, teachers
sometimes get results by requiring only imitation. If imitation fails, another technique requires
the use of a pencil in the mouth to prevent the student's tongue from touching the alveolar ridge,
thus habituating the pronunciation of/l/. Another teacher, or the same teacher at another time,
might come upon a drawing or chart of the human vocal apparatus. It is to be hoped that the use
of the three terms technique, method, and approach, redefined and employed in the telescoping
definitions outlined above, will serve to reduce a little of the terminological confusion in the
language-teaching field.

In conclusion, approaches and methods reflect different assumptions about what is learned, how
it is learned, and what the outcomes of learning are. In educational planning, issues related to
the inputs to teaching, to teaching processes, and to the learning outputs that result are elements
of the process of curriculum development. And technique