Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

Answer
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Teaching style
(a)
academic
(b)
audio-lingual
(c)
communicative
(d)
task-based learning
(e)
mainstream EFL
(f)
others
You should be able to see which of the six teaching styles you are most in tune
with by looking for the row with the most ticks. Question 1 tested the overall aims
of language teaching you prefer; question 2 the slant on language teaching itself
that you like best; question 3 the language content used in the classroom; question
4 the ideas about language learning that you accept. Most people get a line of ticks
in the same row. The final column tells you the name of your preferred teaching
style, to be expanded below.
13.1 The academic style
●
Do you think grammar explanation should ever be the focus of the lesson?
●
Do you think translating texts is a useful classroom activity for the students?
●
Do you see any value to using literary texts that have ‘deep’ meanings?
Focusing questions

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An advanced language lesson in an academic context often consists of a reading
text taken from a newspaper or similar source, for example, the lead story on the
front page of today’s newspaper under the headline ‘PM seeks new curbs on
strikes’. The teacher leads the students through the text sentence by sentence.
Some of the cultural background is elucidated by the teacher, say the context of
legislation about strikes in England. Words that give problems are explained or
translated into the students’ first language by the teacher or via the students’ dic-
tionaries – ‘closed shop’ or ‘stoppage’, for example. Grammatical points of inter-
est are discussed with the students, such as the use of the passive voice in ‘A similar
proposal in the Conservative election manifesto was also shelved’. The students go
on to a fill-in grammatical exercise on the passive. Perhaps for homework they
translate the passage into their first language.
Consider the situation in a secondary school. In one class the pupils are being
tested on their homework. The teacher has written a series of sentences on the board:
The child has (cross /crossed /crossing) the road.
The boy was (help /helped /helping) his father.
… and so on. Then they interact:
Teacher: What’s ‘child’?
Student: A noun.
Teacher: What’s ‘cross’?
Student: A verb.
Teacher: What’s ‘crossed’?
Student: Past participle.
Teacher: So what do we say?
Student: The boy has crossed the road.
Teacher: Good.
In the class next door the pupils have a short text written on the board:
In spring the weather is fine; the flowers come out and everybody feels bet-
ter that winter is over.
And then they interact:
Teacher: What is ‘spring’?
Student: A noun.
Teacher: What’s ‘spring’ in Arabic?
Student: Rabi.
Teacher: So how do we translate ‘in spring?
Second language learning and language teaching styles