Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition
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Basic Principles
46 Another variable in the presentation process is the teaching mode. One cornerstone of behaviourist theory was the insistence on the primacy of the spoken word. Nothing was to be written before it had been said: nothing was to be said before it had been heard. This principle probably continues to hold good for many young learners and for all whose goal is primarily a mastery of the spoken language, but provided that spelling pronunciations are guarded against (and English is not a particularly phonic language) many students find it helpful not only to hear and say new items of language, but also to read and write them during the presentation process. As in any teaching situation, theoretical considerations must give way to considerations of how the learners involved can benefit most. Basically, during English language lessons the teacher is only involved with three processes: presenting new material, practising familiar material and testing it. And up to 90 per cent of his time is taken up by practice of one kind or another. Ways of practising listening and speaking, reading and writing are dealt with in subsequent chapters, but the way in which this practice is related to presentation and woven into the fabric of each lesson is of the very essence of a teacher’s professional expertise. Lessons should be planned and executed so that new language material is soundly integrated with the old. This calls for a sensitive shift from a presentation stage during which the learner’s focus of attention is on the new material through early practice where the attention is gradually diverted, into a later practice stage during which the new material is being handled without conscious attention. The shift of attention can be achieved by a gradual increasing of the contextual depth and interest, also by the teacher’s sensitive adjustment of the pace of the teaching. Like a stream, a good lesson flows more rapidly over the shallower sections and more slowly over the deeper. The question of student errors during practice is often hotly debated. A behaviourist would argue that by making mistakes the learner is practising the wrong things and developing undesirable habits: therefore learners should never be put into the position of making errors. A mentalist view assumes that errors are inevitable, that learners at any given point of their growing competence have command of Basic Principles 47 an interim grammar which is by definition imperfect, that we actually learn from our mistakes. There is truth in both arguments. Certainly repeated errors become confirmed and unless the learner is made aware of them he cannot learn from them. On the other hand, that very strict kind of control on a class’s language practice which makes error almost impossible is rarely of interest, is rarely motivating. The skilled teacher is able to ensure that during presentation no incorrect language is heard or used and that his gradual relaxation of complete control during the subsequent practice maintains interest and enables him to make the learners conscious of any mistakes as they arise. Motivation is a basic principle of all kinds of teaching. It is true that there is a certain superficial satisfaction in getting things right. But the student who is satisfied by doing mechanical language exercises correctly has the same superficial motivation as the needlewoman working on samplers, the learner driver operating a simulator or the tyro nurse giving injections to sandbags. The language student is best motivated by practice in which he senses the language is truly communicative, that it is appropriate to its context, that his teacher’s skills are moving him forward to a fuller competence in the foreign language. Ultimately, however, it is the teacher’s professional judgment which must count. Every human being is a potential foreign language learner, no less than he is a potential patient: and just as no doctor accepts a patient’s own diagnosis and prescription, no professional language teacher can take the view that the customer is always right. Professionalism consists of the operation of a complex of judgment and skills which are soundly based on basic principles of which the layman is usually unaware. It is against the background knowledge of the principles discussed above that the three lessons of Chapter 2 are best evaluated and the procedures and techniques of subsequent chapters are best exercised. Suggestions for further reading J.E.Alatis, H.B.Altman, R.M.Alatis, The Second Language Classroom, Oxford University Press, 1981. Basic Principles 48 C.J.Brumfit and J.T.Roberts, Language and Language Teaching, Batsford, 1983. S.P.Corder, Introducing Applied Linguistics, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. J.Haycraft, An Introduction to English Language Teaching, Longman, 1978. E.W.Stevick, Memory, Meaning and Method, Newbury House, 1976. D.A.Wilkins, Linguistics in Language Teaching, Arnold, 1972. |
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