TEACHING STRATEGIES/APPROACHES IN ENGLISH

Nine Twentieth-Century Approaches to Language Teaching

1. Grammar-Translation Approach an extension of the approach used to teach
classical languages to the teaching of modern languages.
a. Instruction is given in the native language of the students.
b. There is little use of the target language for communication.
c. Focus is on grammatical parsing, i.e., the form and inflection
of words.
d. There is early reading of difficult texts.
e. A typical exercise is to translate sentences from the target
language into the mother tongue (or vice versa).
f. The result of this approach is usually an inability on the part
of the student to use the language for communication.
g. The teacher does not have to be able to speak the target
language.
2. Direct Approach a reaction to the grammar-translation approach and its
failure to produce learners who could communicate in the foreign language
they had been studying.
a. No use of the mother tongue is permitted.
b. Lessons begin with dialogs and anecdotes in modern
conversational styles.
c. Actions and pictures are used to make meanings clear.
d. Grammar is learned inductively.
e. Literary texts are read for pleasure and are not analyzed
grammatically.
f. The target culture is also taught inductively.
g. The teacher must be a native speaker or have nativelike
proficiency in the target language.
3. Reading Approach a reaction to the problems experiences in
implementing the Direct Approach; reading was viewed as the most usable
skill to have in a foreign language since not many people traveled abroad at
that time; also, few teachers could use their foreign language well enough to
use a direct approach effectively in class.
a. Only the grammar useful for reading comprehension is taught.
b. Vocabulary is controlled at first and then expanded.
c. Translation is once more a respectable classroom procedure.
d. Reading comprehension is the only language skill emphasized.
e. The teacher does not need to have good oral proficiency in the
target language.
4. Audiolingualism a reaction to the Reading Approach and its lack of
emphasis on oral-aural skills.
a. Lessons begin with dialogs.
b. Mimicry and memorization are used, based on the assumption
that language is habit formation.
c. Grammatical structures are sequenced and rules are taught
inductively.
d. Skills are sequenced: listening, speaking reading, writing
postponed.
e. Pronunciation is stressed from the beginning.
f. Vocabulary is severely limited in initial stages.
g. A great effort is made to prevent learner errors.
h. Language is often manipulated without regard to the meaning or
context.
i. The teacher must be proficient only in the structures, vocabulary,
etc. that he or she is teaching since learning activities an
materials are carefully controlled.
5. Oral-Situational Approach a reaction to the Reading Approach and its
lack of emphasis on oral-aural skills.
a. The spoken language is primary.
b. All language material is practiced orally before being presented
in written form.
c. Only the target language should be used in the classroom.
d. Efforts are made to ensure that the most general and useful
lexical items are presented.
e. Grammatical structures are graded from simple to complex.
f. New items (lexical and grammatical) are introduced and
practiced situationally.
6. Cognitive Approach a reaction to the behaviorist features of Audiolingual
Approach.
a. Learning language is viewed as rule acquisition, not habit
formation.
b. Instruction is often individualized; learners are responsible for
their own learning.
c. Grammar must be taught but it can be taught deductively and/
or inductively.
d. Pronunciation is de-emphasized; perfection is viewed as
unrealistic and attainable.
e. Reading and writing are once again as important as listening and
speaking.
f. Vocabulary instruction is once again important, especially at
intermediate and advanced levels.
g. Errors are viewed as inevitable, to be used constructively in the
learning process.
h. The teacher is expected to have good general proficiency in the
target language as well as an ability to analyze the target
language.
7. Affective-Humanistic Approach a reaction to the general lack of affective
considerations in both Audiolingualism and the Cognitive Approach.
a. Respect is emphasized for the individual and for his or her
feelings.
b. Communication that is meaningful to the learner is emphasized.
c. Instruction involves much work in pairs and small groups.
d. Class atmosphere is viewed as more important than materials or
methods.
e. Peer support and interaction are viewed as necessary for learning.
f. Learning a foreign language is viewed as a self-realization
experience.
g. The teacher should be proficient in the target language and the
students native language since translation may be used heavily
in the initial stages to help students feel at ease; later it is
gradually phased out.
8. Comprehension-Based Approach an outgrowth of research in first
language acquisition that led some language methodologists to assume the
second or foreign language learning is very similar to first language
acquisition.
a. Listening comprehension is very important and is viewed as the
basic skill.
b. Learners should begin by listening to meaningful speech.
c. Learners should not speak until they feel ready to do so.
d. Learners progress by being exposed to meaningful input that is
just one step beyond their level of competence.
e. Rule learning may help learners monitor what they do.
f. Error correction is seen unnecessary.
 g. If the teacher is not a native speaker, appropriate materials must
be available to provide the appropriate input for the learners.
9. Communicative Approach an outgrowth of the work of anthropological
linguists.
a. It is assumed that the goal of language teaching is learner ability
to communicate in the target language.
b. It is assumed that the content of a language course will include
the semantic notions and social functions, not just linguistic
structures.
c. Students regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer meaning
in situations in which one person has information that that the
other(s) lack.
d. Students often engage in role play or dramatization to adjust
their use of the target language to different social contexts.
e. Classroom materials and activities are often authentic to reflect
the real-life situations and demands.
f. Skills are integrated.
g. The teachers role is primarily to facilitate communication and
only secondarily to correct errors.
h. The teacher should be able to use the target language fluently
and appropriately.
Language Teaching Approaches

Reading Strategies for the Content Areas: Pre-Reading Strategies

1. Ticket to Enter
How to Use:
a. Tell students they must complete a ticket before entering the classroom
following a reading assignment.
b. Tell them the ticket might be an answer to a specific question you have
provided about the assigned reading or a prediction question that will
focus the discussion for the day.
c. Tell them the ticket should also include a students reflection on the
reading assignment with the identification of a question or a clarification
that needs to be made for deeper understanding of the new learning or the
identification of some new learning that was unexpected.
2. Front-Load the Words
How to Use:
a. Identify the most important words for the reading assignment.
b. Tell or write a definition or description of the word. Telling a story that connects
with students prior knowledge will help them remember words.
c. Point out key characteristics or synonyms of the word.
d. Identify or have students identify examples from real life or the reading.
3. Get to the Roof of it
How to Use:
a. Identify key root words for subject-area vocabulary.
b. Have students identify the meaning of roots. They may need to use a
dictionary.
c. Ask students to share subject-area and real-world words that use the root
words.
d. Have students share their words in pairs, small groups, or as a class.
4. How sure are you?
How to Use:
a. As a pre-reading activity, ask students to recall everything they know or think
they know about the reading assignment topic.
b. Ask students to think about how sure are they are about what they already
know. If the students are not very sure or think they could be wrong about a
fact, it should be listed as an In-Pencil Fact. Those facts that students believe
are absolutely true should be listed under In-Stone Facts. If the students feel
confident about a fact but are not absolutely certain, it should be listed as an
In-Ink Fact.
 c. Instruct students to add their lists as they complete the reading assignment,
correcting any misconception they may have had before the reading.
5. Ready-Set-Go-Whoa!
How to Use:
a. Have students brainstorm what they know (or think they know) about the
topic (READY).
b. Prompt students to predict what they will learn in the reading (SET). Record
questions and responses.
c. Have students read the assignment and record new learning (GO). This can be
done individually, in small groups, or as a class.
d. Have students check their initial knowledge (READY) against the new learning
(GO) to determine the accuracy of their initial knowledge and to correct
possible misconceptions.
e. Ask students to brainstorm questions they still have about the topic (WHOA).

Reading Strategies for the Content Areas: During-Reading Strategies

6. Half Full or Half Empty?
How to Use:
a. Select a statement or issue related to the topic of the reading for which there
are both positive s and negative.
b. Have students write the statement in the base of the goblet.
c. Instruct students to find supporting ideas that are both positive and negative
about the statement or issue. These can be facts directly from the reading or
ideas that students generate from the facts.
d. In the empty space of the goblet, under the heading Negatives, have students
record the facts and ideas that refute the statement. Have them record facts
and ideas that support the statement in the filled portion of the goblet under
the heading Positives.
7. Chain Reaction
How to Use:
a. Use this tool to help the students understand events in the order they
happened or the steps in a success.
b. As students read about the event or process, have them identify each
important event or step by nothing it in one of the links of the chain. Caution
students to be certain that the events or steps are in the proper order.
c. Tell students to use as many links as they need to be sure they are including
all significant events or steps.
8. The Missing Piece
How to Use:
a. Divide the reading into five fairly equal segments. Each segment should form
a logical division of the assignment.
b. Have students write the starting and stopping points for each section in the
spaces provided on the activity sheet.
c. Instruct students to read Section 1, 3, and 5, stopping to summarize after each
section by entering notes in the appropriate box.
d. After students review their summary of Section 1 and 3, tell them to predict
what happen s in Section 2. Have them record their predictions in the box for
section 2.
e. Have them read Section 5 and then predict what happens in Section 4.
f. Then tell students to read Sections 2 and 4. After they read each section, they
should check their predictions and make additional notes about what
happened in the text.
g. Conduct a class discussion about how students arrived at their predictions
and the clues from the reading that they used in making their predictions.
9. Connections, Points, and Questions
How to Use:
a. Have students complete the first two columns of the chart (Connections and
Most Important Points) as they read the assignment.
b. In the Connections column, have students make entries from their reading
that match something they already knew. The entries might expand on their
 prior knowledge or be a new connection they have made with something they
already knew.
c. As students encounter ideas in the reading that they think are important to
remember or that summarize a main point, have them enter those in the Most
Important Points column.
d. After students have completed the reading, have them frame questions about
what they would like to know more about and enter those in column 3.
10. The Clothesline
How to Use:
a. Have students select main ideas or concepts from the reading. Instruct them
to write one main idea (the clothespins).
b. Have students enter details about each main idea or concept in the boxes
above the main ideas or concepts.
c. Tell students that details could include examples as well as characteristics of
the main ideas or concepts.
d. Encourage students to add or subtract clothespins as necessary.

Reading Strategies for the Content Areas: Post-Reading Strategies

11. Negotiate your Learning
How to Use:
a. Have students summarize on note cards or stick-on notes three to five key
learnings from their reading. Instruct them to enter one key learning on each
card.
b. Pair students to discuss key learnings and to negotiate summarizing those
learnings on two to four note cards or stick-on notes.
c. Have students gather in groups of four to discuss their key learnings and to
summarize on one to three note cards or stick-on notes.
d. Have students share their small-group summaries with the class as a whole.
12. Two Heads are smarter than one
How to Use:
a. Instruct students to complete the reading before beginning the activity.
b. After students finish reading, have them record the most important ideas they
can recall without referring back to the text.
c. Pair students or have students pick a partner. The students review each others
list of main ideas and make notes about the details for each main idea.
d. When students have noticed all of the information they both can recall from
the text, have them review the reading to see if they have missed any
important information.
13. One word to Sum it all up
How to Use:
a. Challenge students to read the assignment with the goal of summing up their
learning with a single word and supporting their word choice with converging
evidence.
b. After students read the sources, have them identify the word.
c. Have students then share the evidence that supports their choice.
d. Finally, ask students to summarize the evidence by reflecting on their thinking
and new learning.
14. What If?
How to Use:
a. After students complete the reading, have them summarize what happened
and record their summary in the first lines on the sheet.
b. Have students create a different ending or outcome and state it as a what if
question.
c. Instruct students to list the actual results of the outcome of the event in
column 1 of the chart.
d. Tell students that for each result in column 1, they should think about what
might have happened if the what if question had been true, then record
these scenarios in column 2.
e. Have students share their responses with the class.
15. The real Problem is
 How to Use:
a. Determine the facts as you know them for a problem or area of concern,
or have the students do this for themselves.
b. Define or fine-tune the problem based on identified facts or causes as you
know them, or have the students do this for themselves.
c. Have students determine various solutions as well as the potential
consequences both positive and negative for each solution.

Communicative Language Teaching for the twenty-first century

- represent the use of language in social context, or the observance of
sociolinguistic norms of appropriacy
- it is characterized through the ability of classroom language learners to
interact with other speakers, to make meaning, as distinct from their ability
to recite dialogs or perform on discrete-point tests of grammatical
knowledge
- CLT puts the focus on the learner.
- It has four components: grammatical competence, discourse competence,
sociocultural competence, and strategic competence.
- Communicative curriculum (five components) thematic clusters of
activities or experiences related to language use (range of options)
1. Language Arts
- focuses on forms of English, including syntax, morphology, and
phonology
- spelling and / or vocabulary tests are important
2. Language for a Purpose
- it is the use of English for real and immediate communicative
goals
- attention to the specific communicative needs of the learners is
important in the selection and sequencing of materials
3. My Language is Me: Personal English Language Use
- relates to the learners emerging identity in English; implies,
above all, respect for learners as they use English for self-expression
- the most successful teaching programs are those that take into
account the affective as well as the cognitive aspects of language
learning
4. You Be, Ill be: Theater Arts
- sociocultural roles and rules of appropriateness have to do with
the language learning
- it allows learners to experiment with the roles they play or may
be called upon in real life
5. Beyond the Classroom
- regardless of the variety of communicative activities in the
classroom, their purpose remains to prepare learners to use English the
world beyond
- in an ESL setting, opportunities to use English outside the
classroom abound field experiences may become the core of the
course, which then could become a workshop in which learners can
compare notes, seek clarification, and expand the range of domains in
which they learn to function in English
Sandra J. Savignon. Communicative Language
Teaching for the twenty-first century
Pedagogical Stylistics
- One is methodological and relates to the nature of literature as such; the
other is pedagogical and relates to the value of stylistic analysis has for
the teaching of language.
- Study strategies in the teaching of literature to foreign students:
1. Prediction The technique is for the readers to stop the reading at key
points and to elicit predictions of how the narrative will develop. A
heightened degree of attentiveness can be brought about by prediction.
2. Cloze procedure - The focus is on individual words or sequences of
words, rather than on stretches of text.
 Teachers must be careful to the following:
1. the number of words deleted;
2. the relativeness of the chosen items;
3. the linguistic competence of a group; and
4. to preparatory activities on non-literary texts.
Lexical prediction can be made during a reading or after the story has
been read.
To justify their answers, students can be asked to do careful and
close reading of the text.
3. Summary - The technique should be seen rather as an enabling device
for students in their personal process of interpretation or engagement
with the text. It is useful to impose a word limit for the summary. The
summary should be an account of what happens.
4. Forum - It is a small group-based activity with groups being allocated
to defend of either one of the propositions. Students learn that texts of
any kind do not easily allow of singular or unitary interpretation.
5. Guided Re-writing - It is aimed at helping students to recognize the
broader discoursal patterns of texts and the styles appropriate to them.
Six main categories of L2 learning strategies
1. Cognitive strategies enable the learner to manipulate the language material
in direct ways, e.g., through reasoning, analysis, notetaking, summarizing,
synthesizing, outlining, reorganizing information to develop stronger schema,
practicing in naturalistic settings, and practicing structures and sounds
formally.
2. Metacognitive strategies are employed for managing the learning process
overall.
3. Memory-related strategies help learners link one L2 item or concept with
another, but do not necessarily involve deep understanding.
4. Compensatory strategies help the learner make up for missing knowledge.
5. Affective strategies have been shown to be significantly related to L2
proficiency.
6. Social strategies help the learner work with others and understand the
target culture as well as the language.
Barbara Hawkins. Supporting Second Language
Childrens Content Learning and Language
Development in K-5

Four Perspectives Four Models of Listening and Language Instruction

Model no. 1 Listening and Repeating
Learner Goals: to pattern-match; to listen and imitate; and to memorize
Instructional materials: audiolingual style exercises, dialog memorization
Procedure: ask students to (a) listen to a word, phrase, or sentence pattern;
(b) repeat it; (c) memorize it.
Value: enables learner to do pattern drills, to repeat dialogs, and to use
memorized prefabricated patterns in conversation.
Model no. 2 Listening and Answering
Learner Goals: to process discrete-point information; to listen and answer
comprehension questions.
IMs: student-response pattern based on a listening-and-question-
answering model
Procedure: students (a) listen to an oral text along a continuum from
sentence length to lecture length (b) answer primarily factual questions.
Value: enables students to manipulate discrete pieces of information with
increasing accuracy and speed.
Model no. 3 Task Listening
Learner Goals: to process spoken discourse for functional purposes; to
listen and do something with the information, that is, carry out real tasks
using the information received.
 IMs: based on a listening-and-using model
Procedure: ask students to (a) listen and process information and (b) use
the orally transmitted language input immediately to complete a task.
Value: the focus is on instruction that is task-oriented, not question-
oriented.
Model no. 4 Interactive Listening
Learner Goals: to develop aural/oral skills in semiformal interactive
academic communication; to develop critical listening, critical thinking,
and effective speaking abilities.
IMs: features the real-time, real-life give-and-take of academic
communication.
Procedure: three phases: (a) continuous on-line decoding of spoken
discourse (b) simultaneous cognitive reacting/ acting upon the information
received (c) instant-response encoding.
Value: the focus here is instruction that is communicative/ competence-
oriented as well as task oriented.
Joan Morley. Aural Comprehension instruction:
Principles and Practices

Joan D. Badango BSED English IV