[MUSIC] Welcome back to Teach English Now!.

Thanks for
joining us on our journey throughout time to discover different approaches to
learning and teaching a language. In this last video, we wanted to give
you an overview of the information we have presented so that you can have a
clear idea of what you will be tested on. Let's review how these approaches
swing from one idea to the other. Shane? >> Thanks, Jessica. First of all, we
looked at
a teacher who adopted principals of the grammar translation approach. Here we
discovered a teacher whose
purpose for teaching language was, to teach young men, scholars,
how to read Latin and Greek. His job was to give his students
a classical education and be rooted in the morality that
came with time tested literature. He used long passages of poetry,
short story, plays and novels and helped students to engage in these classic texts
through careful and thorough readings. He also taught these students
through the use of back translation. That technique that moves students from
the second language to their primary and then back to the second language. He also
taught grammar explicitly,
used reading comprehension questions, fill in the blanks,
memorization of vocabulary, and he wasn't afraid of assigning a writing
essay to determine how much students knew. Jessica. >> Thanks Shane. In our second
trip, we visited an adventurous teacher that
adopted features of the direct approach. This teacher wanted to teach students who
would travel or visit other countries. He wanted students to
truly experience culture. Not just classic literature. But geography, history, and
people. He used dialog, conversations,
passages about other cultures, maps and visual aids, he wanted you to know what
it was like to be completely immersed in a culture and made his classroom
feel like an immersive experience. He didn't really teach grammar
deductively, rather he taught you as if you were learning a first language by
reading out loud, conversation practices, map drawing, question and answers,
and self-correction wherever possible. Shane. >> In our third trip,
we learned about a teacher and the reading approach who had the practical
need of getting students ready. For tests, he taught students would
likely never leave the country. Since this teacher wasn't a native
speaker of the language himself, he relied on readings that would
level to the learners knowledge and taught vocabulary and
grammatical items from those readings. Once again, deductive grammar
instruction became fashionable. As did the memorization of vocabulary,
and a certain amount of translation. As opposed to the direct approach,
oral proficiency was not emphasized and evaluative performance through
testing was a major focus. Jessica? >> Thanks. Our fourth journey, landed us in
the middle of military action. As military personnel, were required
to teach soldiers how to speak so that they could communicate
with enemies and allies. By learning on principles taught by
behaviorist, this teacher taught using dialogues, language mimicry,
repeat after me, and visual aids. He was a true believer of habit formation
drills, including backward buildup, chain, single and multi slot
substitution and transformation drills. He believed in dialog memorization,
the use of minimal pairs, grammatical games and
a concept called Overlearning. Shane? >> Thanks Jessica. We then travel to a time
when
we found the cognitive approach. This scientist looked to understand
how languages worked, and often wanted to research and publish, all with the aim of
understanding
the unique properties of the human mind. While it was not truly a classroom
approach, it attempted to peer into that impenetrable black box that
we think of as the brain. Something Noam Chomsky called
the Language Acquisition Device, what a mysterious name. Cognitive scientists tried
to uncover
the processes, cognitive and metacognitive that learners used as they tried to
gain and retain information Jessica? >> Thanks. What got left out at the equation,
in the cognitive approach, was a discussion of anything
outside of the brain. Thus, the pendulum swung again,
and we found approaches that discussed the importance of
focusing on a holistic view of people. A special emphasis on feelings. This teacher
sought to respect student
feelings as they learned a language and believed that by understanding
student feelings, there was a chance to increase
the speed of learning. The teacher used bright colors, pictures,
music, fine art, and dialogues, and games, all in an attempt to help learners
become
more comfortable with the environment. Students were constantly given positive
reinforcement, given new identities, and when they listen to a reading, they
would listen with music in the background. And listen several times. Time was spent
developing plans that
allowed students to be creative, either through dramatic, interpretations,
games, singing, or dance. Shane.
>> Thanks. Comprehension based approaches such as
total physical response soon followed. These approaches sought to
help make meaning clear by giving students confidence so that they
would be willing to produce language. While the effective humanistic approach
asks students to speak, and act, and create, TPR and other comprehension based
approaches such as the natural approach lets students be silent participants,
at least at the beginning. Classroom objects and observable
objects were an important part of the student experience and chunks of
language and novel combinations are used. TPR itself had quite
a number of commands and used role reversal to help
students give commands as well. TPR also allowed students to think
in terms of action sequences to help guide them to understand
language through chronological events. Jessica.
>> Thanks. Finally, we have arrived to
the communicative approach, which is an approach
still widely used today. Here, the purpose of the approach
was to connect people together, to create opportunity. Sometimes educational,
sometimes
political, and sometimes financial. The communicative approach demonstrated
a high value on loving other cultures and places and somehow shortening
the distance from one place to the other. Book publishers created carefully leveled
books with high interest themes and these books often contained
a variety of skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Books also
contained excerpts on
pronunciation, grammar, culture, learner strategies,
speech acts, and vocabulary. In some sense, the communicative approach sought to
learn
from all of the approaches in the past, in order to avoid swinging from one
side of the pendulum to the other. It could use authentic materials. Picture
strips, information gap,
language games, group and pair work and listener strategies to meet diverse
needs of individuals in each class room. >> So did you see any swing from one
side of the pendulum to the other? Did you notice the swing from the use
of deductive to inductive grammar? How about the use of speaking
as a primary component? Notice how the grammar
translation approach, for example, had no speaking really. Direct?
Yes, speaking. Reading? No.
Audio-lingual? Absolutely. Cognitive? Not really. Effective humanistic, yes.
Comprehension and then,
you see what I mean. It's a lot of swinging. However, I'm happy to state that
the comprehension based and communicative approaches tend
to not swing nearly as much. While different practitioners may
have differing amounts of speaking or grammar in their class, nearly all
practitioners have recognized the need for at least a certain amount. We could
discuss this in
some detail later, but the point is that it appears we aren't
swinging nearly as much as in times past. And that's a good thing. >> One final
note, while there's been a
lot of swinging back and forth We want you to keep in mind the tremendous
difference
there is in understanding of your purpose. If you encounter students who really
need to pass a test, then some of the strategies learned in the reading
approach might be very attractive and even recommended. If learning just enough
language to
communicate quickly is attractive to you, there is still commercial products
that use a lot of audio-lingual drills to allow you time to practice and practice
quickly before your airplane lands. So, before you judge any of
these approaches too harshly, please consider what your purpose and
the purpose of your learners is first. >> Great insight Jessica thanks. We have got
to stop swinging back and
forth and our ability to choose techniques and materials based on our
purposes makes a lot of sense. I would also add that taking a careful
look at language studies can also be a way of grounding ourselves in reality,
instead
of just choosing techniques because we find them fashionable, fun, or because
they fit our particular personality. We have a great wealth of information in
our field that should inform our decisions as we move forward as
language instructors. All right, ready for your test? Make sure you review all the
materials and
go over the videos and your worksheet before you begin. Good luck. Let me set the
time machine to
a date in the not-so-distant future, your future success. We'll see you then. >>
Thanks for watching Teach English Now. [MUSIC]