Current Approaches to English Language Teaching - Essay Example

Running Head: Current approaches to English language teaching Student’s Name: Instructors Name: Course Code and Name: University: Date Assignment is due: : Current approaches to English language teaching Introduction Today, traditional approaches to English language teaching are being modified in order to fit in with emerging pedagogical influences. As English becomes more and more popular as a global language, many people continue to seek way of learning it as a second language. This makes teachers of this global language to continue to facing enormous challenges as they try to meet the learning needs of people from different social, cultural, economic and linguistic backgrounds. This paper discusses four main approaches that are currently being used in English language teaching. They include communicative language teaching (CLT), task-based methodology, content- based language teaching, and competency-based training. As far as adult English language teaching in Australia is concerned, each of these approaches has its benefits and drawbacks. Teachers need to consider learner types, learning needs, strategies and linguistic theory advance when choosing which style to adopt in the classroom. This will enable them ensure that the desired learning outcomes are achieved. The first approach is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). This approach enables ESL learners develop and enhance their communicative competence. Through CLT, focus is put on the functional language ability of learners, through engagement in various communicative events. The main focus is on the communicative needs of the adult learner, his autonomy and how meaning is negotiated. Both form and meaning are of utmost importance in the CLT approach, whereby they are achieved through writing, reading and face-to-face communication. The CLT approach emerged in the 1970s as a reaction to the previously used audiolingual approach, which were overly formal and extremely boring, mainly because of its emphasis on drill exercises. CLT facilitates a communicative interaction in the classroom, rather than meaningless production of endless linguistic forms that have been prescribed for a particular lesson. In Australia, this approach has been in use throughout the history of AMEP (Adult Migrant English Program) whereby emphasis is on the use of spoken and written English for use in social contexts (Burns & Joyce, 2007). One of the main highlights of this approach is error tolerance. Fluency always precedes accuracy, mainly because it is learner oriented. Adult learners prefer this approach since it enables them downplay errors that can rob them of the confidence to practice with the rules they have already learnt. Additionally, it seems to go hand in hand with political and social developments in Australia, which emphasize on anti-authoritarian and emancipative approaches to teach (Beckett & Macpherson, 2005). Theoretically, the approach is a representation of cognitive and pragmatic perspectives on the study of language. In the pragmatics aspects of a language, focus is always on the contexts in which various language forms derive their meanings. In other words, people use language in order ‘to do things with the help of words’ as opposed to showing off their ability to produce correct sentences to other people. For purposes of English Language Teaching among adults, the core aim of CLT is on ensuring that students are able to use English in order to handle everyday communicative tasks. The CLT is said to have contributed largely to the replacement of the formal language teaching syllabus with a notional-functional syllabus. In the CLT approach, the main challenge for the teacher is creating a situation that can motivate learners to make use of English. At the same time, the teacher has to ensure that their communicative intentions do not end up being frustrated for lack of enough phrases and words of expressing themselves. The teacher has to cease being a grammar instructor and to become an ‘enabler’, that is, a person who makes it possible for learners to cope with English learning problems. However, in practical terms, use of the CLT approach entails striking a compromise solution that reconciles meaning-oriented and form-oriented teaching. Skilful choice of topic is required, whereby the topics selected contain the words that learners understand as well as their present communicative intentions. The second approach is task-based methodology. This approach requires students and adult learners to engage in various tasks that require real discursive communication while focus on accuracy at the same time, this approach can be really challenging for inexperienced teachers. This is there is nothing much to plan; the teacher waits for students to ask questions as they arise. The language teacher has to be a quick thinker in order to timely and accurate answers in order to avoid interrupting the natural flow of tasks. According to Richards & Stephen (2001), the approach gives adult English learners the freedom to choose those aspects of linguistic expression that they find useful to them through discussions and arguments. In these settings, the influence of minority languages may keep arising in the adult learners’ efforts to express themselves using their limited linguistic repertoire (Beckett & Macpherson, 2005). The learners also utilize various expressions with the teacher’s help in areas such as pronunciation and meaning. These tasks are highly effective tools for functional practice as well as for a topic-based exploration of the English lexicon. Lowe (2003) indicates that the two main elements that are emphasized in task-based methodology include personalized, meaning interaction during tasks and a culture of language focus and accuracy. The teacher is always correcting students constantly while on the other hand, students express enthusiasm about being interrupted with information on how to say things in the most accurate manner. In this approach, teachers have to build the skills performing the dual roles of both equal participants in tasks and managers and explainers of conversations. The main assumption in task-based methodology is that learners will assimilate language into their overall functional and communicative competence. This is because language forms are used only when they are genuinely needed; when the context for their use is right. In other words, the fundamental idea of language acquisition is made possible through reference to comprehensible input, which in turn, triggers appropriate feedback from the language teacher. However, task-based methodology has two main drawbacks. First, attention is always focused on practicality at the expense of ideology. Individual differences among learners may not be readily appreciated in group-work settings. Focusing on these differences can divert the drift of the learning tasks being undertaken. Secondly, teachers who adopt this approach may sometimes start to feel that accuracy-based feedback is inappropriate. After they fail to correct the students, they may feel disgruntled and make slow learning progress. Content- based Language Teaching is the third approach to second language teaching. This approach simultaneously focuses on language needed for school learning and promotion of thinking skills. The approach is also commonly referred to as cross-curricular language learning or language across the curriculum. In content-based language courses, emphasis is on use of language for purposes of interpreting and negotiating meaning from the natural perspective of different learners. There are many educational, linguistic and societal reasons that motivate the use of the content- based language teaching approach. The most significant reason for its use is the view that learners use language as a tool rather than the actual target in the learning context. From a constructivist perspective, this approach enables different learner types to see how different parts fit together in order to form the whole right from the start. Emmitt et al (2004) observes that through focus on content, learners get an opportunity to uncover their potential and talent because of the multiple intelligences and different learning styles involved. Moreover, it leads to self-sufficiency and independence among learners in the course of individual and group work sessions. The main shortcoming of the content- based language teaching approach is that it does not emphasize on the communicative role of language. It is impossible for the teacher to pay attention to the use of language in social contexts. For this reason, the approach is not commonly used in language learning among adults. Competency-based Training is another approach in second language teaching. In this approach, the core aim of learning a language is to ensure that a person can use it effectively to perform tasks in the workplace (Harmer, 2008). Adult learners who choose to attend language training institutions that employ this approach acquire the necessary competence in the form of ability to perform the task assigned to them in the workplace. Language training programs are often categorized into modules. These modules are then broken down into segments known as learning outcomes. The modules are defined on the basis on the industry-set standards. Assessment is designed in such a way that each adult English learner ends up achieving all the learning outcomes that he will need to perform a given job. This approach differs from any other English language teaching approach since the entire program is not based on time (Brown, 2007). Once a learner has acquired and demonstrated the learning outcomes that are in a certain module, they are automatically taken into the next module. This is a convenient approach for adult learners, who are highly likely to be motivated by the instrumental functions to which they are going to apply the English language for survival purposes. The main weakness of this approach is that the industry-training adopted may not be compatible with the fundamental principles of language acquisition. Teachers often find it difficult to reconcile the industry needs with the requirements of the syllabus. Sometimes, the local minority languages may have significance relevance in the English learners’ ability to perform their jobs well. For this reason, English teaching may be influenced by the local language with regard to the teaching strategies used. The language teaching materials used have to be specially designed to facilitate the achievement of the competence and skills required of each module. In most cases, English language teachers may find it difficult to teach all the basic elements of a language (off-the-job tasks) without compromising on on-the-job language skills. Lastly, there is Text-based Language Teaching. This approach is defined by Nunan (2009) as teaching by explaining the need to achieve certain target tasks. A task is any activity undertaken for others or for oneself, either for some reward or freely (Nunan, 2009). In other words, tasks are the things the all people do in their day-to-day lives. The most significant aspect of this definition is lack of a linguistic perspective. However, when tasks are defined in a language classroom setting, they acquire pedagogical relevance. In this regard, teachers always encourage learners to process the language components they have acquired in order to perform various tasks. Additionally, teachers who use this perspective have to define what constitutes a successfully completed task. Use of many tasks in classroom teaching makes the language acquisition process highly communicative, since it creates a rationale for every classroom activity (Yu, 2006). The best task for use in this approach is one whereby meaning is primary, learners are not encouraged to regurgitate other people’s meanings and priority is on completion of the task at hand. In all these activities, comparability with real-world activities should also be an issue of priority. The main problem with this approach is that there is little agreement on what constitutes a well-completed task, both pedagogically and in terms of real-world performance. Additionally, attention is always put on meaning rather than the underlying grammatical knowledge, yet form and meaning are always highly interrelated concepts. The approach is somewhat similar to the CLT approach with regard to the limited attention that is accorded to form. The tasks differ from ordinary grammatical exercises in that the learner can freely use a wide range of language structures as long as he achieves the predefined task outcomes. Conclusion In conclusion, all the five approaches have been used in many adult language teaching contexts within Australia. Each of the approaches poses certain challenges to both teachers and learners, although some of the weaknesses spread across all the perspectives. The main differentiating factor is the extent to which elements form and meaning are taught. For adult English learners, the main source of motivation is the ability to use a language in a real-life communicative context, such as a workplace. Therefore, one would expect them to be at ease with an approach (such as CLT) that prioritizes on the ability to communicate in the target language. References Beckett, G. & Macpherson, S. (2005). Researching the impact of English on minority and indigenous languages in non-Western contexts, TESOL Quarterly, 39(2). Brown, H. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy: A narrative approach to exploring context in language teaching, ELT Journal 62(3): 231-239. Burns, A. & Joyce, H. (2007). Adult ESL programs in Australia: Prospect, 22(3), 5-17. Emmitt, M., Zbaracki, M., Komesaroff, L. & Pollock, J. (2004). Language Learning: An Introduction for Teaching (Fifth Edition). New York: Kegan. Harmer, J. (2008). The practice of English language teaching, (Fourth Edition), London: Macmillan. Lowe, C. (2003). Authentic participation: integrating task-based and language-focus methodologies, New York: Kegan. Nunan, D. (2009). Task-Based Language Teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Richards, J. Stephen, T. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, London: Macmillan. Yu, M. (2006). On the Teaching and Learning of L2 Sociolinguistic Competence in Classroom Settings, 8(2). Read More