"Tenor" - Teaching English for No Obvious Reason

Lecture notes: Language from a common root? Think about the word "father"

"Father" has similar form in different languages - they show similarities as though they come from one root.

Of 6500 languages, half are endangered or on the brink of extinction. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8498534.stm)

Eg Brazil - 180 mother tongues, 75% have disappeared, only one spoken by more than 10,000 people.

Success of a language depends on the native countries economic power, military muscle and cultural prestige.

Speculate how Robinson taught Friday English: Ad hoc teaching

- object word pairing

- Daryl says "torture," or rather reward and punishment system... :p

- Gesticulation

- Mime

- Expanding existing vocabulary to new concepts (ship = big boat)

Institutionalized Language Teaching was accessible only to the rich. Everything changed with the Napoleonic wars. Armies moved into new places and realized it was necessary to learn regional languages quickly.

The Grammar Translation Method

This method is still used today.

Every modern language teaching method is based on the approach anchored on Theory of Language and Theory of Learning. Lessons are designed specifically leading to procedure (what teachers and learners do)

The Language reform movement suggested we forget about grammar and observe children's use of mother tongue. (reference Henry Sweet: the Practical Study of Languages, 1899)

Direct (natural) Method

A long list of guidelines created 150 years ago. Berlitz Method uses this system and has proved to be very successful with private students through native-speaker teachers. BUT it overemphasized the similarities between L1 and L2 learning. It failed to recognize the practical realities of the classroom.

Audio-lingual Method

Based on Watson and Raynor's idea of conditioning (stimulus-response-reinforcement), Skinner 1957 linked verbal behavior to behaviorism.

Learning Dialogs with drills to the point of over learning. They believe pronunciation errors would lead to bad habit formation if not corrected quickly.

Students will learn structure but are unable to transform language to suit new situations.

Chomsky: Transformational Grammar

Finite Words + Finite rules = infinite number of utterances

Brown 2002: Are Methods dead?

Nowadays nobody uses a method as rigorously as they adhere to approaches. We will form our own methodology.

Total Physical Response - mother infant relationship. replicating natural way of acquiring mother tongue. "In beginning classes, it outperforms other methods." It makes language learning fun. Rather than ALM's strict correction, it uses soft correction.

Look at other methods: The Silent Way / Suggestopedia

Communicative Competence

grammatical competence: words and rules

sociolinguistic competence appropriateness

discourse competence: cohesion and coherence

strategic competence: appropriate use of communication strategies

Approach: Theory of Language

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2. The primary function of lang is for interaction and communication

3. the structure of language reflects its functional and communication use

4. the primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features but categories of functional and communication meaning.

Approach: Theory of learning

• Activities that involve real communiciation promote learning
• Activities in which language is used to carry out meaningful tasks promote learning
• Language that is meaningful to the learner supports to learning process

Learning about the language versus Learning the Language

What makes an effective language learner?