Teaching

What’s teaching ?
Functions of teaching ?
Characteristics of a good teacher ?
Relationship teacher/learner ?
Suggetions for classroom management
Teaching is a process of arranging conditions under which the learner changes his/her ways consciously in the direction of his/her
own goals.
1/ The first effective teacher is the learner himself. To have a real teaching, the learner must be evolved. The professional reaches the
height of his craft when the students become their ownselves teachers. In other words the good teacher is always trying to work
himself out of the teaching role by getting learners to assume that role for themselves.
2/ The main function of the teacher is to intellectualy lead a social group (a group of learners) to achieve this leadership he needs to.
To have an intellectual preparation in the subject matter. Be alert to body expressions as signs of mental conditions in learners like
puzzlements, boredom, pretended attention, tendency to show off, understanding. Dominate the group in the sense that a teacher
knows more than the learners and is the one to take decisions and to impose his will.
3/ It is believed that a good teacher is not necessarily the one who uses good teaching methods and has a wide knowledge.
A good teacher is the one who has most of:
-The teacher should create a healthy environment for agreement and disagreement to take place. A healthy environment is a positive
climate where thinking can take place in order to create this healthy environment the teacher should give the opportunity to all
students to make their own contributions that should be handled with logic rather than emotion.
-The teacher should be interesting in the sense that he keeps interest alife and knows what suits the learner.
-The teacher should be secure and confident in what he says and does.
-The teacher should be respectful towards the students and their knowledge.
-The teacher should have a contagious enthausiasm for his teaching.
-The teacher should be creative.
For this purpose many teachniques resulted to: games, songs, information gap exercise, problem solving questions... and so on.
-The teacher add pace and humour to the class.
-The teacher should challenge the learners without discouraging them.
-The teacher should be encouraging and patient.
-The teacher should take a minute or two to answer questions after class.
The teacher should treat the learner as a person on an equal basis with all his/her classmates regardless of sex, race, social class...
-The teacher should leave his/her emotional baggage outside the classroom. The classroom is a stage and to be effective, the teacher
must be enact.
Relationship teacher/learner
How to create a good relationship with learners needs to be worked out personaly, patiently and skillfully. However there are some
general rules agreed on and wich are a good contribution of teacher/learner.
-Be strict in your attitude. A strict teacher often proves to have a friendly class than the easy going teacher however paradoxical this
may seem. A permissive teacher often adopts this attitude in search of imidiate popularity which is often followed by a loose of
esteem and bad behaviour in the medium of long run the strict teacher shouts less than the permissive teacher and has a fewer rous
with learners. He/she creates the piece which is necessary for any positive relationship.
-Respect the conventions of retelassence. These conditions are there for the necessities of a professional relationship.
-The teacher must keep behind a berrear precisely for the sake of this relationship.
-Be consistant, in other words, follow the same rules all the time: Do not accept one thing one day and refuse it the next day.
Be determined and never give up.
never make threats you cannot cary on; if you do learners will not listen to you.
-Praise and pay attention to all learners. Legitemate praise is very important to reinforce learning; attention secures interest in learners
and motivates them. However it is sometimes better to ignore regular troublemakers, for attention maybe felt as rewording bad
behaviour by taking notice of it in such case, a stare can serve as a diterrent.
Suggestions for classroom management
-Pupils of all ages respond egerly to the influence of a pleasent degnified, humourous and tolerent personality.
-Firmness and order are accepted by learners from a teacher they trust and respect.
To avoide disaplinary problems:
Prepare the lessons thourougly.
Make a close of those who have difficulties in understanding.
Show confidence and act as somebody who expects the learner to do what she/he requests of them speak convincingly and clearly,
never menetonous using language learners understand.
Avoid noticable manor reasons; they distract the learner attention and become object of fun at your expence.
Do not start a lesson before you have the attention of everybody.
Never continue to teach when the class is talking; stop working and insist on order befoer resuming the work.
Keep the pupils busy all the time.
Stop misbehaving and ignore pitty.
Give a task to pupils whose attention in wavering.
Make sure your rules are understood by the whole class and that they become a part of class routine.
Show interest in learners.

Systematic Approach To Teaching

Defintion
Elements of the system
Teaching is a system. A system is a complex unity formed of many diverse parts subjects to a common plan an aggregation of objects
joined in regular interaction.
Teaching is a comprehensive system in the sense that all the elements are related to each other, contribute to achieve a common goal,
and where a change in one element may cause a change in other elements or the whole system.
There are 10 elements which make up the system of teaching:
1/ Objectives: As the system begins, the teacher specifies what the learner should be able to do by the end of the course.
2/ Selection of the content: The teacher selects the knowledge, the attitudes, the values which help the learner attain the objectives.
3/ Assesment of entering behaviour (Pre-test): At the beginning of the school year. The teacher needs to know what the learners bring
to the course. For this reason, a pre-test organised to determine the learners ability in the subject matter and to what extent she/he has
acquired the basic skills needed for the course.
4/ Determination of the approach/method and techniques: There are three terms often used interchangibly. However they do not have
the same reasoning. Edward A.Anthony states " Techniques caryout a method which is consistant with an approach".
5/ Organisation of groups: There is no definite number of learners to form an ideal group. The number to be choosen depends on
A- Objectives.
B-Approach to be followed.
C-Administrative reasons (the number of tables, the space).
For group work activities there are three main grouping strategies.
A-Entirely mixed ability grouping: Using an alphabetic order or sitting arrangements. This type of grouping is favoured when the
purpose is to encourage the verbal interactions of less able learners.
B- Choosen for a specific quality (emotional and intellectual reasons) grouping: Shy or withdrawen/corners may find it difficult to
work on certain activities with talented extroverts. Thus separate groups are advicable. Sometimes able and less able groups are
recommended to give special attention to the less able ones. Decisions about the grouping strategy to adopt is governed by whether
the learner will gain or have more difficulty in a particular group.
C- Friendship grouping: For certain activities (research work, reports...etc) acquintances or friendships will help by offering security
and support. It is advicable not to break a new class into groups too early. A teacher should wait until she/he feels she/he knows the
class, can handle it properly, and when she/he has had enough individual work with the learners.
6/ Allocation of time (for the course, the lesson, the group work): It varies according to:
A- Subject matter.
B- Objectives.
C- Space available (administrative task).
D- Abilities and interests of the learners.
E- Activities to be performed.
In some areas it maybe best to spend most of the time in large groups, in some others more time is best spent in group work. A teacher
should plan his/her teaching according to the time constrains impossed on him/her.
7/ Allocation of learning spaces (classrooms): The Ideal room should be longer than larger so that most learners are in the teacher's
visual scope, this is very important.
8/Selection of resources (media): Resources can be classified info four categories.
A- Visual material: Blackboard, slides, films...
B- Audia material: Radio, tape recorder...
C- Printed material: Books, texts, newspapers, magazines...
D- Display material: Charts, maps...
9/ Evaluation of performance (assessment):
A/ Achievement
B/ Reasoning
C/ Practice of the language
D/ Motivation
The evaluation of performance gives significance to the objectives, the selection of content, the resources adopted...
10/ Analysis of the feedback: In teaching the teacher presents information, the learner reacts to the information in tests, then the
teacher confirms their answers as correct or incorrect with explanations.

Objectives
Nature and function of objectives
Categories of behavioural objectives
Terminology related to objectives
A- Objectives are the outcome, the goal, the purpose, the end result of a successful instruction. They are expressed on the statement of
behaviours (intellectual ones expected from learners). What they are expected to be able to do at the end of a course or a lesson.
Objectives should be clearly expressed at the beginning of the course. It is important to write them in terms that are not ambigious, i.e.
not vague and not open to various interpretations.
B- The functions of the objectives are:
1/ To describe what the learner does/produces (the behaviour).
2/ To state the conditions under which the objective is to occur (specific tasks, methods...).
3/ To determine the standard to be achieved (the degree of performance).
Therefor when writing objectives four questions should be answered:
Who? i.e. the learner (what type of learners)
What? i.e. the behaviour (what the learner will be able to do at the end)
Where? i.e. the condition (in what learning teaching condition the objective is to occur)
How well? i.e. the standard (criteria of accepted performance)
Objectives usually include verbs such as describe, identify, estimate, compare, define, select, plan, use, construct, argue, analyse...
Objectives are written by the teacher, the learner and the institution.
S.M.A.R.T
SPECIFIC--MEASURED--ACHIEVABLE--REALISTIC/RELEVANT--TIME-BOUND
Categories of behavioural objectives:
1/ To identify i.e. indicate membership or non-membership of an item to a class of items.
2/ To name i.e. give a label to an item.
3/ To describe i.e. report necessary characteristics of a given item.
4/ To order i.e. to structure, to arrange two or three items in a specific sequence; arranging words in sentences.
5/ To construct i.e assemble several items together on a unity like a paragraph.

Content
Definition
Criteria of content selection
Organising a course
Content is the knowledge, the skills, the attitudes, the values to be learned inorder to achieve the objectives.
There are several attitudes to what content is, the role it plays in education:
1/ Knowledge for knowledge, anything we learn is worth learning.
2/ For the use we want to make of it, i.e. knowledge developed for a specific purpose.
3/ For the development of intellectual abilities.
On the whole, content is developed because it is necessary to the understanding of something else (link with another knowledge) or
because it might be of a useful use later.
Characteristics of content:
1/ Validity (authenticity and the relationship with objectives):
A- Authenticity: A content is valid in the sense that it is authentic, realistic, true. The material used should not contain information
which is no longer true due to knowledge developed, new discoveries in the field. Teachers need to be aware of this problem and must
be aware of new changes in their field.
B- Relationship with the objectives: A content is valid if it is possible for the objectives to be achieved through its use.
2/ Interests: A content is interesting in the sense that it stimulates the students' attention and concentration.
These two factors are important in the process of learning.
3/ Learnability: Learnable content is a content which is adjusted to the students' abilities, which makes a connection with something
they have already learned.
Organising a course:
We organise a course in order to make it easy and quick to learn.
When we organise a course, we have to consider three points:
A- sequence: The ordering of the new teaching points we usually order according to what is easy comes first and what is difficult
comes next.
B- Exact course: How much to expect from the students in a given course, and how much to teach.
C- Revision: What points need to be represented, re-explained; revision in language teaching is important for reinforcement

purposes because we do not acquire aspects of a language after only one exposure.
Note: Revision without causing bordom: Variety of presentation is recommended.
D- time constrains: This is another criterian not to be overlooked when arganising a lesson or a course.
Conclusion: A content which is up-to-date related to the objectives, to the students' nteestandcapcites s lkel tomak th stdens ahiee the
set of objectives.

Language teaching approaches and methods

Definition
Major language teaching approaches and methods
The grammar translation method
The direct method
The reading method
The audio-lingual method/approach
The oral/situational approach (SLT)
The natural approach
The communicative approach (CLT)
The competency-based approach
Definition: The nature of language teaching approaches has been the object of different studies as early as the 19th century (Sweet
1845-1912, Jesperson 1860-1943, Palmer 1877-1949). However, Anthony (1963) was the first to present a scheme of analysis in
which he distinguished between "Approach, Method, technique". By approach is ment a theory of language and language learning; by
techniques is ment classroom procedures; methods is an intermediate level between the approach and technique, where specifications
are made about the content, skills, the odrder of presentation of the teaching items. Richards and Rodgers (1986) illaborated another
modal in which they refer to "Approach", "Design" and "Procedure". By design they make preference to the definition of the
objectives, the selection and organisation of the syllabus, the specification of the activities, the description of the role of the learner, of
the role of the teacher, of the role of the instruction of materials. By procedure Richards and Rodgers mean the description of the
techniques and practices expected to take place in the classroom.

A. The Grammar/Translation Method:

To begin with, language teaching in the 16th century had as its tenet the traditional Grammar Translation method. This method was
developed to teach Latin, a language which was no longer used for communication, as an intellectual discipline. During that time,
textbooks were written by people of Literature helped by grammarians, and largely consisted of abstract grammatical rules, lists of
vocabulary and sentences to be translated from and into the target language. The goal was to develop the writing and reading skills.
Speaking was neglected, and oral practice consisted only in reading aloud the translated sentences. The sentence was considered as a
basic teaching unit, and its accurate production was emphasized. The deductive approach was followed in grammar teaching, i.e.
grammar rules were first presented and explained then practised through translation exercises. Furthermore, the instructing process
was carried out in the students’ mother tongue. In short, knowledge of the grammatical rules was regarded as more important than
communication, and the focus was on teaching about the language.
The Grammar Translation method was severly critisized on the grounds that authentic spoken language as used in communication was
ignored, and that the aspect of variety in language as used in social situations was neglected. Because it was based upon the analysis
of classical languages like Latin, the grammar it taught was abandoned for two reasons: first, it was irrelevant to the contemporary
languages (17th century European Vernacular) and second, it was believed that too much emphasis on grammar would lead to learning
about the language rather than learning to use it in actual situations. Innovations in the mid and end of the 19 th century contributed to
the rejection of the Grammar Translation method. There was an increasing demand for the ability to communicate orally in a FL
throughout Europe. Contemporary scholars responded to that change through what came to be known as the (Reform Movement). It
was strengthened by the revitalisation of Linguistics which highlighted the oral aspect of language. Gouin (cited in Richards and
Rodgers, 1986) was one of the 19th century reformers whose initial attempts to teach language in context, and to use paralinguistic and
non-verbal means of communication in the language class provided later the cornerstone for the Situational approach and Total
Physical Response method. He was also the first to attempt to apply principles derived from first language (L1) acquisition to (L2)
learning. This ultimately led to the direct method.
B. The Direct Method
Principles such as the study of speech, the emphasis on accurate pronounciation, the use of dialogues to introduce conversational
phrases and idioms, the inductive teaching of grammar and the association of target language items to real objects rather than to their
native language counterparts constitute the foundation of the direct method. The reading and writing skills were deferred for months
and sometimes even for years for fear that the written symbols would interfere with the learners’ acquisition of sounds.
The Direct method was reported to have many shortcomings. First, the use of L1 was strictly forbidden though it is sometimes needed
to help gain time and save effort. Second, the teaching goal the Direct method set was over-demanding in the sense that the learners’
speaking and conversational skills were expected to be developed in the rather limited time available at school, and in an artificial
classroom setting where teachers not always as competent as the method required them to be (namely, to be native speakers or have
native like proficiency in L2). It follows that this method over-emphasized the similarities between L1 acquisition and L2 learning,
and failed to consider the practical realities of the classroom. Third, the Direct method lacked a strong theoretical foundation. It
suggested innovations at the level of teaching procedures which were not underlied by rigorous methodological principles. The
exclusive use of L2 and the mere exposure to it were viewed as an unsystematic way to teach/learn a language.
C. The Reading Method:
The report of the American Professor Coleman (1929) (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986) advocated the emphasis on reading in
language teaching as a more appropriate and realistic goal for school learners. That gave birth to the Reading method which was
prominent in the USA from the beginning of the 20th century until World War Two. It was purported to teach intensive and extensive
reading. Reading comprehension was in fact, the only important language skill, according to the proponent of this method. Translation
was restored as a respectable classroom procedure. Only the grammar useful for reading comprehension was taught. Vocabulary was
at first controlled according to frequency and usefulness criteria. During that time, a special interest towards vocabulary and its
importance in language learning began to raise. The prominence of the Reading method in some parts of the world encouraged more
and more vocabulary studies. Among the latter, we mention Faucett, Palmer and Thorndike (1936), Ogden (1930) and West (1226)
(cited by long and Crookes (1993) in Crookes and Gass, eds, (1993)). Syllabus design in language teaching, indeed, owes its inception
and principles to these first attempts to select the vocabulary to be taught on scientific grounds. We note that recent vocabulary studies
have been motivated by the use of the computer for analysis of authentic texts. This attempt has eventually led to the modern lexical
syllabus.
D. The Audio-Lingual Approach/Method:
In the 1940’s, major occurances in America led to a change in the reading only objectives. During the Second World War, it was
found that there were few people who could speak a FL – a very needed ability at that time. That was the beginning of full
programmes teaching the aural – orla skills, using intensive drilling among the military personnel, and the successful results of this
teaching experience encouraged its generalisation in schools and universities. Developments in Psychology and Linguistics had a
major impact on language teaching. It was the first time that this field responded to theoretical insights pertaining to these disciplines
rather than merely to practical experiences of classroom language teachers. Reference is made here to Skinner’s (1957) insights about
language learning in Behavioural Psychology and to Bloom-field’s (1933) and Fries’ (1945) Structuralism and Contrastive Analysis
in Linguistics (Scholars cited in Prator, 1991, in Cecle Murcia, ed. 1991). These factors gave rise to a new language teaching
approach, the Audio-Lingual approach, which claimed to hold the key for effective language mastery, being based on scientific
principles.
Psychologically speaking, language learning was viewed as a habit-formation process, following the behaviourist pattern: stimulus-
reinforcement. Linguistically speaking, structure was considered as the core of the language, the sentence patterns and the
grammatical rules that govern speech. It was believed that structure can be mastered through intensive practice, and that early practice
should concentrate on the grammatical and the phonological structures of the language rather than its Lexis. Grammar was to be
taught inductively. Language was essentially based upon speech, and writing delayed until complete mastery of speech patterns was
achieved. Language as a whole should be linked to its cultural context. As to the types of activities, the Audio-Lingual method was
founded on techniques such as dialogues based on pattern practice were also indispensable.
Audio-Lingualism flourished in the fifties and sixties. Then, it was critisized and rejected on the basis that the students who followed
this approach found themselves unable to speak the language fluently when communicating with others. Newmark, 1966 (in Brumfit
and Johnson, 1979, 160-161) wrote that if language had to be learned (bit by bit) and each structural item had to be drilled intensively
and focused on separately, (the child learner will be old before he could say a single approapriate thing and the adult learner would be
dead). At the level of theoretical foundations, Audiolingualism was mainly attacked by Chomsky [(1957) and (1965)] who
instroduced notions of (creativity), (innateness), rules of (great abstractness and intricacy) in the framework of his Transformational
Generative Grammar. In his (Review of skinner’s Verbal Behaviour), Chomsky asserted that children are endowed with a natural
biologically-conditioned predisposition to acquire language, and that the presence of a language in the surrounding environment is
necessary and sufficient to activate the latent capacity. His mentalistic view gave rise to the Cognetive Code Learning theory which
advocated the conscious learning of structures, emphasized the role of the mental processes in language learning and served to raise
the acquisition/learning distinction. However, Chomsky did not suggest a practical alternative to the Audio-Lingual method. He spoke
about one’s ability to produce an (infinite) number of sentences with (finite) means. This is indeed the ultimate goal of language
teaching, but we need to have a plan with gradual stages to reach this aim.
E. The Oral/Situational Approach:
As outlined above, dissatisfaction with the direct method led to the development of the Audio-Lingual approach in the United States
of America. A different but related approach took place in Britain and came to to known as the oral approach or Situational Language
Teaching. It was similar to the Audio-Lingual approach in that it held an identical view of the nature of language and language
learning: language was mainly speech, the order in which language skills were introduced proceeded from listening and speaking to
reading and writing; the focus was on drilling the basic structures and patterns of the language to reach accuracy. Its contrast with the
Audio-Lingual approach lies in the fact that while the latter was strongly rooted in Structuralism and Behaviourism, the former
developed directly out of the Direct method.
The origins of the Oral approach can traced back to the 1920’s and the 1930’s attempts of applied linguists to establish a more
(scientific) and systematic basis to the Oral approach of the Direct method. They adopted Situational Language Teaching, founded on
the oral practice of structure presented in a situation. Focus on the situational contextualisation of language is considered as the
beginning of the functional tendency since the 1930’s by British linguists such as Firth and M.A.K Halliday (cited in Richards and
Rodgers, 1986) who described language in association with its meaning, context and situation. It is worth mentioning that though the
approach was situational, the designed syllabus was not, in that the latter did not consist of a list of situations accompanied by the
language used in them, but it was a Structural syllabus. This means that structures, patterns and lexis were selected and graded then
presented and practical in situations. The meaning of the lexical items and grammatical structures was not directly explained in L1 or
L2, but was induced from the situation they were used in. As to learning, the oral approach was faithful to the behaviouristic
principles.
In the mid sixties, the Oral/Situational approach declined, like the Audio-Lingual approach, with the challenge of its theoretical
foundation. Change and experimentation were, therefore, urgently needed. The innovation were two-fold. In the United States, we
note that appearance of recent methedologies like the Total Physical Response, the Silent Way, Counselling-Learning and Community
Language Learning. This trend originated from Humanistic Psychology dependent on the work of Rodgers (1969), Maslow (1970)
and Brown (1971) (cited in Rivers, 1982). In Britain, and in accordance with current research in Linguistics, largely under the
influence of M.A.K Halliday (1973), and in Sociolinguistics, mainly under the impact of Hymes (1971), a different set of notions
evolved leading eventually to the F/N apporach or CLT. On both sides of the Atlantic, the basic notion of (communicative
competence) began to emerge to have subsequently a substantial influence. CLT is our central theme of interest and will be dealt with
.in detail in chapter two
F. The Natural apporach:
In harmony with the findings of the research on language acquisition another approach, the Natural Approach. It was developed out of
Terrell’s (1977 and 1982) experiences in teaching Spanish and was theoretically advocated by Krashen (1981, 1982) through his
(Monitor Model) and (input Hypothesis). This apporach aims essentially to lower (the affective filter) (i.e. the learner’s emotional
state or attitudes that may facilitate or impede language acquisition) and to provide the learner with (comprehension) input so that L2
may be acquired as L1. According to the proponents of the Natural apporach, comprehension is basic to language acquisition.
Therefore, they emphasize exposure to the L2 and make it possible to use written materials as a source of comprehensible input. In
addition, it is recommended that the learners be given time to process this input and be invited to speak only when they feel ready to
do so. The correspondence between L1 and L2 acquisition has not fully been investigated. However, the Natural approach has had a
strong impact on language teaching although it lacks a clear theory of language.
In summary, the language teacher is, in recent years, faced with a number of varying approaches/methods. Some of these lack a sound
theoretical foundation either in language theory or language learning theory. Some strive to remove the affective hindrance; others
force the learner to overcome it. Many of them focus on form while some strive to shift the emphasis to meaning. As a consequence,
the language teacher finds himself bewildered and lost as to what method to adopt, to enable the student to know (the structures that
the linguist teaches), and more importantly to (know that the way to get his cigarette lit by a stranger when he has no matches is to
walk to him and say one of the utterances (Do you have a light?) or (got a match?) (not one of the equally wll – formed questions, (Do
you have a fire?)) or (Do you have illumination?) or (Are you a match’s owner?) (Newmark, 1966:161 in Brumfit and Johnson, eds,
1979) i.e. to know how to use the language to communicate. At this stage, we are led to the conclusion that the development of the
various language teaching approaches and methods has gradually helped foster the notion of student – centred classroom and has
created a focus on language meanings and on the affective variables at work in the language learning process.
G. Communication Language Teaching (CLT):
CLT has been influential since the early 1970’s. Contrary to what some people believe this apporach cannot be equated with
contextual language teaching because it is concerned primary with (pragmatic meaning) which does not equate (contextual meaning).
The (pragmatic meaning) is the meaning of an item when actually put to use in acts of communication, while the (contextual
meaning) is the semantic meaning of an item as an element of the language system. The former is also called the (value) and presents
an instance of use, whereas the latter is referred to as the (signification) of language elements and presents an instance of usage. The
value of an utterance as a communicative act derives from its satisfying conditions [as specified by Searle (1969) and Labov (1969),
(1970) cited in Melrose (1995)] provided partly (and not wholly) by the context. Therefore, if we present language items and practise
them in contexts and situations, this does not mean that we are teaching language communicatively. Contextual meaning may be
easier to teach than pragmatic meaning, but teaching the former without the latter does not lead the learners to communicate. One
reason is that there is no single one-to-one relationship between the communicative functions and the linguistic forms. Knowledge of
how sentences are put to use in communication does not follow from knowledge of how sentences are composed nor even from
what(signification) they have as linguistic units. Learners should be taught the values of language items and utterances and how they
are used in the performance of different communicative acts. To illustrate this point, Littlewood (1981, 1) gives the example of the
utterance (Why don’t you close the door?). linguistically speaking, this is an interrogative sentence. However, it may be interpreted
as a question, a command, a suggestion, a plea or a complaint. On the other hand, one communicative function may be expressed in a
number of ways. To have the door closed, one can say. (Close the dorr), (Could you please close the door?), (Would you mind closing
the door?), (Excuse me, could I trouble you to close the door?), (You’ve left the door ope,!), (Brrr! It’s cold isn’t it?) not all opetions,
of course, are possible in the same situation. Each sociolinguistic situation inh made unique by a complexity of operating factors
which entail a speaker to reseort to a particular language register and style, adjusting the language to the actual speech situation.
The Communicative apporach is thus an apporach to language teaching that involves the learners in producing meaningful and
purposeful utterances in L2, and not merely manipulating language forms and structures for their own sake, like in the case of the
Grammar Translation method. Unlike the Direct method, CLT allows the resort to a cariety of communicative situations right from
the early stages of the teaching process, to present and clarify meaning, and does not unnecessarily restrict the teacher and the learners
to the classroom context. In addition, in CLT, more freedom is given to the pupils to say what they want, when they want, but in the
Audio-Lingual method, they are supposed to remain within the limits imposed by the lesson, and are allowed to say only what they
already know how to say under thye control and the guidance of the teacher. Furthermore, the Audio-Lingual method stresses
accuracy of pronounciation and structure right from the beginning of the course, whereas the communicative approach sees errors as
indicators of active learning, and is conserned with evaluating only the amount of the (communication is not the rapid fire exchange
of linguistically accurate complete sentences. It is the sometimes slow, sometimes painful, sometimes non-verbal exchange of
thoughts between human beings).
CLT is underlain by two main cornerstones. First, language should be viewed and used in its socio-cultural context, and the
communicative values of language should be highlighted. This CLT dimension can traced back to the work of the anthropologist
Malinowski (1923) and the linguistic Firth (1957) (cited by Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Sensitivity to the individual needs in a
Learner-Centred should be allowed to experience, use and practise language as used in everyday situations, performing a variety of
communicative acts. CLT recognises the differences existing between individual learners in style, needs, goals, weaknesses etc, and
attempts to take them into account in the design of syllabus and classroom procedures. It is recommended, for example, to design
learning tasks for each pupil or group of pupils that are below or above the level of the amjority of the pupils. The basic goal of CLT
is to enable the learners to communicate using the L2. This was shared by such approaches as Situational Language Teaching and the
Audio-Lingual approach. The difference, however, is that CLT explored this goal explicitly in specifying what is to be taught and
how.

Competency Based Approach:

Competency –based education: is based on the specification of what constitutes competency in a given field the way in which the
agreed-upon level of competency is communicated through the use of specific behavioural objectives for which criteria level of
performance have been established once the required behaviours’ve been specified, they are placed in a hyrarchy leading from simple
to complex, and then an instructional sequence is planned that will help the learner achieve the desire behaviours. When the learner is
ready, the test is administrated to determine if the required level of competency’s been achieved. Competence is measured through
criterian-referrenced tests and not through the use of noun-referrenced tests. In CBA, a major concern is to provide many ways for the
learner to accomplish the stated objectives. The mearner may be able to choose from a lecture, a list of selected neading, a video tape
presentation, a slide-tape package, a programmed instruction manual or numerous other functions.
The thought pattern that gave us the CBA is experimention
1/ The world is in constant change.
2/ Educational practice should be based on evidence provided by psychological data. The finding researches: exiperimental
psychology.
3/ Man’s psychological and sociological behaviour is based on the economic and well being notice.

QUESTIONS CONVENTIONAL SYSTEM CBA

Who sets the goal The teacher usually sets the Both the teacher and
And objectives of the goals and the objectives. The students are usually
Instructions? Often they’re not clearly involved. When the
Defined. Students are usually teacher sets the goals
Not told what they are. And the objectives, the
Students do not usually have student is told what
A choice. They are, and allowed
Some choice of goals
And objectives.
Who decides in the the teacher usually controls Students often have a
Means and procedures the situation and presents all choice of alternative
Of instruction? Students with the same materials roots, experiences and
And experiences for the same materials to use in
Amount of time. Persuading a given
Goal and objectives.
The student controls
The amount of time
What learned? Students may learn about Spent on goals or
Some things. Objectives. Students
Usually learn how to do
Who decides on the the teacher usually gives Things. The teacher
Evaluation procedures? A test of her or his own design. Insures that the
Students often don’t know what Evaluation procedures
Is expected from them. Are consistent with
Testing procedures tends to be Often the student has a
Paper-and-pencil-tests. Choice of ways to
To demonstrate that he
Can perform as expected.
When does evaluation when the teacher is through When the student
Take place? Teaching a unit of instruction. Indicates he or she is
Ready.
When does the student When the last unit has been When the student has
Move on to the next set taught and the evaluation of mastered the last set of
Of learning goals and students is completed. Objectives and goals.
Objectives? Students may have passed the student continues
Or failed the last unit at working at the set of
Various levels of proficiency. Goals or objectives
Nevertheless, all students until mastery are
Move on to the new content. Achieved.

Competency based language teaching (CBLT): on the basis of CBT developed CBLT. Features which some up the essence of this
approach is:
1/ a focus on a successful functioning in society. Autonomous, free.
2/ a focus on life skills. Not only language form but language skills.
3/ Task or performance centered orientation.
4/ Modularized instructions. Language will be broken down in small units.
5/ outcomes are made explicit a-priory. We’ve specified objectives beforehand.
6/ continuous and ongoing assessment. The evaluation continues.
7/ demonstrated mastery of performance objectives.
8/ individualized students centered. Speed, level, time, content.
Principles underlying CLT: are relevant to CBLT:
1/ learners learn a language through using it to communicate.
2/ authentic and meaningful communication should be the goals of classroom activities.
3/ fluency is an important dimension of communication.
4/ communication involve the integration of different language skills.
5/ learning is process of creative construction and involve trail and errors.
Critics of CBLT: have argued that approach is not easy to apply. They point out that analyzing situations into tasks and underlying
competencies isn’t always feasible or possible, and often little more than intuition is involved. They also suggest that this is a
reductionist approach. Language learning is reduced to a set of lists and things as thinking skills are ignored

Assessment
Aims of assessment
Categories of tests
Characteristics of a good test
Constructing a test
Some language tests
General testing terminology
Aims of assessment:
1/ to determine readiness for instruction; that is to separate those who are prepared for instruction from those who are not.
2/ to classify students in appropriate classes and groups; students are assigned to specific groups or activities on the basis of their level
and performance.
3/ to diagnose the student’s specific strengths and weaknesses; short tests are given from/about specific points of the course.
4/ to measure the extents of the student’s achievement of the objectives; that is to say, to find out how much the students are learning
or have learned.
5/ to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction; anything related to teaching; the same test given to the students serves this aim.
Sometimes, that specific test especially designed for this purpose, in case of research to test a specific method or course book.
6/ to measure aptitude for learning; to assess the student’s potential for learning.
This applies especially for young learners with specific problems.
Categories of Tests
There are three basic categories of tests:
1/ The General Proficiency Tests: It measures what a learner is capable of doing now (at the time of the test), predicting future
attainment (1, 2, 3).
2/ Achievement Test: It measures the extent to which learners have mastered specific skill or information (4, 5).
3/ Aptitude: It measures an individual’s facility for acquiring or learning (6).
Characteristics of a Good Test
1/ Validity (what does the test measure): a valid test is one which measures what it is supposed to measure clearly, which is
appropriate to the objectives. There are three types of validity:
A- Face Validity: a test has face validity if it looks appropriate to the objectives; for example, a multiple
choice test is valid for the following objective: to recognize a word in a specific context.
B- Content Validity: a test has content validity if it samples adequately the content of the subject matter.
C- Construct Validity: the test has construct validity if its results co-relates with those obtained in another
test which is accepted as being a valid test.
2/ Reliability (how will the test measure what is it supposed to measure): a reliable test is a test which produces consistent scores,
scores we can count on for any decision about the students. Reliability is related to two aspects:
A- Consistency in terms of scores themselves: in the sense that these scores are the same whatever
conditions the test in taken in.
B- Consistency in terms of the score: in the sense that the scores are the same if the test is scored by
different scorers independently.
Reliability is often affected by:
- Test conditions.
- The students’ motivation to take the test in question.
- Other factors such as illness or personal problems.
- Adequacy of sampling tasks.
3/ Practicality: a test is practical when it is easy to administer and to correct.
Constructing a Test
There are several steps to follow:
A- Planning a test: it includes the objectives, general design of the test (form of the test); it also includes
the type of test, the number of items, and the factor of time).
B- Writing the test directions: directions should be brief, simple to understand and unambiguous. They
can be followed by an example if necessary, especially in the case of a new test and with young learners. Sometimes it is preferable to
indicate the length of time for the sub-parts of the test.
C- Reviewing the items: the items of the test are set aside for a few days before being reviewed by the
teacher or submitted to one colleague with experience in the subject matter, and discussed.
D- Pre-testing: a new standard test is to be tried on a fairly large number of students of the same kind as
those for whom the test is to be designed. Only items which prove to be statistically satisfactory in this pre-test are included in the
final version of the test. Items are considered statistically satisfactory if they meet to requirements:

Suitable level of difficulty.

Discriminating between students who know and those who do not know.
Some Language Tests
1/ Translation: it is a highly specialized activity and a complicated one. It is extremely difficult to evaluate. Hence, it is highly
unreliable.
2/ Dictation: it is a useful device to test phonology and spelling. It is quite reliable.
3/ The Composition: it tests students’ free response to a question set by the examiner.
4/ The Oral Test: it is a parallel test to the composition. It is also an unreliable test.
5/ Multiple Choice Test:
Description of the test: there is a stem, a statement or a question followed by the answers usually three or four, the right answer and
the distracters i.e. the wrong answers.
Advantage: the skills tested are specified. The test can be answered fairly quickly and scored very quickly.
Disadvantages: there is a percentage of guessing; the learner does not think of his or her own answer, he or she merely makes a
choice. The test requires considerable skill to be prepared but is it very reliable.
6/ the Short type Items: any test which requires the students to write a short answer within a specific context, not just opting for one.
Advantages: it is a composite test between the composition and the multiple choice test. It is quick and easy to write for the teacher
(not the case of the multiple choice test) and quick and easy to score (not the case of the composition). Besides it is quite reliable.
General Testing Terminology
1/ Quiz/Test/Exam
2/ Objective Vs Subjective Testing
3/ Speed Vs Power Tests
4/ Discrete Points Testing Vs Global testing
5/ Norm Reference Testing Vs Criterion Referenced Testing

Lesson Planning

Writing a lesson plan

The main sections of a lesson
Use of a Lesson Plan

When a teacher plans a lesson he/she have to think about the following points:
1. The target/objective.
2. The kind of content; new vocabulary, new structures, new functions, new themes.
3. The skills to be practiced.
4. The main stages of a lesson i.e. how a lesson divides into different activities. Any lesson is usually divided into the following
stages:
a.Presentation: the teacher presents new points; he/she explains, gives examples and so on. Anything the teacher does falls in this
stage.
b. Practice: practice consists in activities done by the learners under the control of the teacher, whether oral or written activities.
c.Production: it is a free contribution on the part of the learners, for example, talking about one’s own experiences.
d. Review: to review or to sum up the main points of a lesson.
The main sections of a lesson plan:
1. Introductory section (warm up): to organize a favorable mental set, to prepare learners mentally to the lesson. It usually deals
with the title, the plan and the objectives of a lesson. It may consist in telling a story or asking questions.
2. The main body of the lesson i.e. the stages referred to previously.
3. The final recapitulation: at the end of the lesson teachers should sum up the main points covered, with an explanation of the
logical relationship linking these points or the relative value of individual points. They may in addition ask key questions to check
whether these points have been assimilated by learners or not.
Use of a lesson plan: a lesson plan should not be written for the sack of the inspector. Rather its main purpose is to help the teacher: to
help the teacher decide on what to do exactly with the learners and how to do it. It should be looked at after the lesson to be evaluated.
Was it Scrupuzly (thoroughly) followed? To what extent? Where all the stages successful?
There is no one correct way to write a lesson plan. A good lesson plan gives a clear picture of what a teacher intends to do in a lesson.