009. ALELUYA DE LA TIERRA

TEMA 1

Acquiring a language is a natural and unconsciouss process, the way the children learn thir mother tongue. Learning involves an effort, is a consciouss process which involves many cognitive skills. A second language (L2) can be learnt or acquired, depending on the age, and the conditions of the learning environment.
A foreign language is learnt through a consciouss and carefully designed process with occurs during the school years and lasts forever. Every learner is different, although we can find some common characteristics for most of the students, which conform the principles of every teaching method designed for languages.

An Approach to language (theory) is something that reflects a certain model or research paradigm. A theory about how language is learnt.
Methods are more specific than approaches. A method is a set of procedures, a system that spells out how to teach a language.
Techniques are more specific than methods. Techniques are classroom devices or activities which can be often used in different methods (for example, drills).

Richard and Rogers summarizes the elements and subelements that consitute a method in the following model:
→ approach refers to the theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve as the source of practices and principles in language teaching;
→ design specifies the relationship between the linguistic and learning theories and the form and function of the materials and activities that are going tobe used in class. It is the level of method analysis in which they consider (a) what the objectives of the method are; (b) how language content is selected and organized within the method (the syllabus); (c) the types or learning tasks and teaching activities the method advocates; (d) the roles of learners; (e) the roles of teachers; (f) and the role of instructional materials.
→ procedure is related to the techniques, practical issues and behaviours that operate in the classroom. It involves the actual techniques, practices and behaviours present in teaching a language according to a particular method, that is to say, how the tasks and activities are integrated into lessons and how thye are used as the basis for learning and teaching.

For centuries, Latin functioned as the preeminent language in various domains, including education, commerce, religion, and government. However, during the 16th century, a series of political developments in Europe led to the prominence of European languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, and English, thereby marginalising Latin. Nevertheless, during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, Latin was regarded as the language of culture and was incorporated into the curriculum of grammar schools. The analysis of its grammar, structures and rhetoric provided the model for foreign language studies for the period spanning from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
The 18th century marked the inception of the study of modern languages, with the approach based on the study of Latin establishing itself as the prevailing standard for centuries to come. The practice of language learning was not conducted through the medium of the spoken word; rather, grammar points and rules were articulated and elucidated through the medium of simple sentences.
The Grammar Translation Method, also referred to as the Prussian Method, experienced a period of heightened significance spanning from the 1840s to the 1940s. In this approach, the primary focus of foreign language study is the comprehension of language texts. The method under discussion places significant emphasis on the development of written language skills, encompassing both reading and writing.

Was first used in the teaching of classical languages, Latin and Greek, and continued through out the centuries acquiring more and more importance in the 18th century. During the 19th century modern foreign languages were still taught in the same way as classical ones. Latin rules were taken over to explain English grammar and in the 20th was used to help students read and appreciate foreign language literature.

The aforementioned method was the subject of considerable criticism during the 19th century, as it failed to take into account the actual processes of communication. The mounting necessity for communication among European countries gave rise to a demand for oral proficiency in foreign languages, and conversation and phrase books began to be published. Furthermore, a number of innovative teaching methodologies were developed, including those devised by Marcel, Pendergast and Gouin.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century, the field of linguistics advocated for spoken language, phonetic training, the prioritisation of hearing over reading, and the presentation of words within contextually meaningful sentences. Grammar instruction was to be imparted via an inductive approach, with a conscious avoidance of translation exercises.
In the late 1860s, L. Sauveur implemented the Natural Method in Boston, an approach to grammar learning that emphasised the use of inductive reasoning. The Direct Method was founded on this approach, and entailed the exclusive utilisation of the target language in the classroom setting. The Direct Method was extensively utilised in France, Germany and the USA.

Towards the close of the nineteenth century, the field of linguistics advocated for spoken language, phonetic training, the prioritisation of hearing over reading, and the presentation of words within contextually meaningful sentences. Grammar instruction was to be imparted via an inductive approach, with a conscious avoidance of translation exercises.
In the late 1860s, L. Sauveur implemented the Natural Method in Boston, an approach to grammar learning that emphasised the use of inductive reasoning. The Direct Method was founded on this approach, and entailed the exclusive utilisation of the target language in the classroom setting. The Direct Method was extensively utilised in France, Germany and the USA.

Discovery-based theory. The language was to be learnt from speech rather than writing. No translation is allowed. Everything is expressed in the target language, by learning to think in that language, the same way we learn our mother tongue. Through conversation, discussion, and reading in the target language, without translation or formal grammar. The first word are taught by pointing to objects or pictures, or by performing actions.

In the 20th century, structuralists conceptualised grammar as the foundational element in the pedagogy of language. A systematic approach was adopted in the instruction of reading comprehension, pronunciation and oral repetition. In the field of Structuralism, the acquisition of language is conceptualised as a process of mastery over its constituent elements, ranging from the phoneme to the sentence. This mastery encompasses the phoneme, the morpheme, and the word, collectively representing the fundamental units of language.
The Audiolingual method is predicated on Structuralism, the study of contrastive analysis of languages, aural and oral procedures, and behavioural theories. These theories characterise learning as a mechanical process of habit formation or imitation. Exercises inspired by these methods are based on repetition (drills). It is imperative that new items are learnt in the following sequence: listening, speaking, reading, speaking.
In the 1920s, Harold E. Palmer and A. S. Hornby endeavoured to establish a more scientific foundation for the Oral Approach in the pedagogy of English. Palmer classified the main grammatical structures in sets of basic structures or sentence patterns, which were later termed 'substitution tables'.
In the field of language learning, grammatical proficiency, vocabulary enrichment, and reading comprehension were identified as being of paramount importance. Lexical frequency studies were instrumental in the creation of lists of essential, basic vocabulary. The introduction and subsequent practice of linguistic issues occurred in a 1960s context. The term 'situational' began to be used to refer to the 'Oral Approach'.

Method originated in USA durinr the Second World War. Based on structuralism and behavioural psychology. Structuralist hold that grammar is a set of rules that govern structures and other isolated elements. Structures must be taught, especially those which are completely different from those of the mother tongue. It lasted from about the second half of the fifties to the end of the sixties.
Its basis formed by stimulus-response-reinforcement. Uses drilling followed by positive or negagtive reinforcement when the teacher corrects the answers.

Scientific discoveries, international communications development, international conflicst (2nd World War), the new theories in Psychology (Skinner) and Linguistics (Bloomfield; Fries) were the seeds from where the audio-aural method grew. It was also called situational or structural-global.
The method consisted on listening to audio tapes and repeating to consolidate language structures and train a native-like pronunciation and intonation. Designed for American Army that needed to learn foreign languages very quickly.

In the mid-sixties, Noam Chomsky in his classic work Syntactic Structures (1957), argued that structural theories of language could not account for human’s language main property: creativity. He says that by applying a finite sets of rules, an infinite range of experiences can be expressed. Learning, then, is not based on habit formation, but on rational acquisition of the finite set of rules, which can be applied when facing a new situation. This line of argument leads to the notion of linguistic competence.
Cognitivism considers that the learner is an active participant in the learning process. To learn and to use a rule the learner must think and then analyse the situations in which this rule can be reapplied adequately. Cognitivism gave way to the rise of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).

In the 60s and 70s, the rising importance of the human relations and individualization in the language class, defines the Humanistic Approach. Under this perspective, the teacher pays special attention to the human values and relationships within the classroom. The consideration of the learner as the centre of the teaching-learning process is its main feature, and it is shared by all the methods included in this approach.
The hidden curriculum is especially dealt with, because it is influenced by the social and affective atmosphere in the interaction among learners and between learners and the teacher.
There are some methodologies which come under the category of Humanistic Approach: the Silent Way, appearing in 1972, Community Language Learning (1976) and Suggestopedia (1978).

This method was developed by Calen Gattengo, who also developed the Community Language Learning method. It is student-centred and gives special attention to the learner’s psychology during the learning process. The teacher uses silence as an approximate tool, in the sense of introducing each situation in the simplest form possible, while constantly taking into account the comprehension, the situation and the contents.

According to Richard and Rodgers (2001), the learning hypotheses implied in this method are:
→ Learning is facilitated when the learner discovers or creates actively, instead of repeating or remembering.
→ Learning is facilitated by physical objects, which act as mediating ones.
→ Learning is facilitated by problem-solving, involving the item to be learnt.

Regarding grammar and lexis, this method follows a syllabus designed with structuralist criteria. Neverthless, the underlying principles aim at taking the maximun advantage of the learner’s mental activity. The main innovation lies in the arrangement of activities inside the classroom, as the teacher tries to speak just 1/10 of the session’s total time. Communication with learners is carried out by means of non-verbal language: gestures, mimics, visual aids and, especially, the Cuisenaire Rods (colored wooden sticks of different colors and shapes). Typically, the teacher leads the activity and tries to achieve the highest degree of intervention by the learner.
Richard and Rodgers (2001) summarise the main principles of this method in the following process: the learner is responsible for formulating hypotheses, test them, and discover autonomously the rules of the language.

Based on psychotherapeutical research on language-disabled people, this method is grounded on the theories of the American Charles Curran. It focuses on the affective needs of the learner, which are paramount in order to make the foreign language learning process possible. Language is understood as a social process, in contrast to the classical concept of language as communicacion. In other words, the classical definition of communication as sender-message-receiver becomes insufficient, but it does not account for the receiver’s reaction.
Community Language Learning (CLL) aims at both cognitive and affective learning, and refers to an individual’s total experience, that is to say, to whole-person learning. After that process, the learner must become a state of autonomy in his own learning. In order to achieve that objective, the psychological requirements for success are represented by the acronym SARD: Security, Attention and Agression, Retention and Reflection, and Discrimination.
Some of the aspects that have been criticized are the adequacy of the psychological base for the language learner, and the orientation and special training that the teacher must receive in order to be capable to carry out this methodology. Other debated points have been the absence of a syllabus definition, as CLL poses excessively ambiguous objectives and is unable to be realistically assessed. However, according to Nunan (1991), CLL is a student-centred method and focuses on the human side of learning a language, and not only on its linguistic dimensions.

Learning by inspiration. Relaxation, music, decoration, no method, create a relaxing atmosphere, rhythmic breathing and reading, in synchrony with some background music. Student himself must fix his/her objectives. Memorization is the result of an intense, positive stimulation of personality, comprehension and the ability to problem-solving in a creative way. Placebo feeling. A dialogue accompanied by a vocabulary list and a grammatical commentary. Includes imitation, question and answer and role play.

James Asher (1977). Based on mother tongue language acquisition. Linked with the trace theory, which sustains that the more often a memory connection is traced, the stronger the memory association is and the more like it is recalled. Before producing verbal response, a child replies physically to commands and orders given. The main objective of TPR is to achieve a beginner’s level of oral skills. The adult, as the child, should begin the learning process through physical action. Gaming atmosphere. The learner is primarily a listener and a performer.

Its main objectives lead to develop basic skills for personal communication, oral and written. Syllabus presents the linsguistic structures in an order of increasing complexity.

Based on five hypothesis:
1. Acquisition is an unconscious process. Learning is conscious and does not lead to acquisition per se.
2. Conscious learning monitors the process, controlling and correcting the linguistic production.
3. The grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order.
4. The information is better understood when it is close to the learner’s real level but the best conditions are given when the information is a bit over the current knowledge of the learner.
5. When there is a negative affective disposition, language acquisition is lesser or inexistent. Affective variables, sucha as the attitude or motivation, personality, anxiety, self-confidence or self-esteem may facilitate or hamper the psycholinguistic process by which linguistic data are stored in the human memory.

Also named Notional Functional Approach. WE can fin its origins in Noam Chomsky’s generative transformational grammar and British applied linguistics ,which established the need to focus language teaching on communicative proficiency (Henry Widdowson and Christopher Candlin applied the linguistic conception of Jojn Firth and Michael Halliday and the ideas of John Gumperz, William Labov, John Austin and John Searle.
The transformation of educational systems in Europe. Wilkin (buscar): functional or communicative definition of language; communicative language syllabuses; He described two types of meaning: notions (concepts) and functions (purposes).

CLT is based on:
• The 1970s research on second or foreign language acquisition.
• A long-standing functional view of language and language use as social behaviour.

Description: The goal of language teaching is to develop communicative competence, what a speaker needsto know to be communicatively competent in a speech community, not only knowledge of the language, but the ability to use it in different registers, according to the situation.
Activities that involve real communication (communication principle); activities in which language is used for carrying out meaningful tasks (task principle); the use of language that is meaningful to the learner, that is, selecting activities whch engage the learner in meaningful and authentic language (meaningful principle).
Communicativa competence: functional skills and linguistic objects.
A communicative syllabus must include: structures (grammar), functions (purposes), notions (concepts), themes, tasks, situations and cultural and experiential aspects.
CLT materials: task-based, text-based and realia-based.
The role of the teacher and the learner: active participants in continuous interaction.
Functional communication activities: comparina a set of picgtures, working out a sequence of events from pictures, discovering missing features in a map pr picture, following and giving instructions, etc.
Social interaction activities: conversation and discussion, dialogues and role plays, simulations and debates,etc.

CEFR establishes four modes of communication: reception, production, interaction and mediation.

Based on the personal growth of both teachers and students. Recognize and appreciate both the intelectual side an the affective component of the individual. Activites lead to stimulate self-esteem, to help the learner identify his/her strong points, to gain a higher level of sel-knowledge and to develop closer and more satisfacgory relationships. Motivale students by stimulating their minds, ears and hearts.

Its pedagogical procedures can be summarized in three principles:
1. Creating a preoccupation with meaning and stimulating the learners to face the demands of communication.
2. Avoiding planned progression and preliminary selection of the language structures.
3. Activities focused on form (controlled practice)
Procedural learning. Activities that require the learner’s use of the abilities of reasoning, inference (grammar) or interrelation of information. Situational presentation of new items (structures and vocabulary). Balanced attention to the four skills (oral precede written), controlled practice, substitution charts an oral repetition.

Ways of using the computer for teaching. There are practical issues to consider: the selection of the hardware and software development tools for the project, Hypercard, Authorware, Toolbook, CALIS, C, and Visual Basic, or a language to enable publishing on the World Wide Web such as the Hypertext or Virtual Reality Markup Languages (HTML and VRML). In the Spanish educational system, the most well-known software were JClic, Hot Potatos and MALTED, among other authoring tools. (poner otras que yo conozca y haya comprobado), Educaplay, Wordwall Herramientas educativas para docentes.

The instructional design must include tasks addressed both to content and language. Concept and linguistic form go hand in hand. Language learning is oriented towards information and knowledge acquisition.

Find out what students want and need.

Language awareness. Raising the noticeability of that language in the minds of the students. Process of succesive approximation, or layered noticing. A series of stages. Not inmediate active and accurate production;
Reformulation (reflective correction). The process of assimilation of new content is gradual and unknowable.

The noticing model has two functions (informal testing):
1. To provide free-speaking scenarios (to see the students’ current state of progress and assimilation)
2. To show what language points need more focus and practice.

Mid-90s. Get away from Presentation-Practice-Production (PPP). No language points in advanced are taught. Communicative tasks. The student must ask the teacher the language bit he/she needs for prepare the task. Students do the complete task by using the language (structures, vocabularir) they have requested and been given.