2. Methodological principles, their main characteristics

The Methodological principles are regarded as general principles of scientific cognition in the field of FL Methodology which have a tendency to be integrated and interconnected and reflect the essence of the humanistic methodology of Education. They are: cognitive, communicative, linguacultural, sociocultural, conceptual, person-oriented.

To begin with let me remind you of what we call a principle. By principle we understand the main statues, guidelines which being realized in the organization of FLT process, its content, methods and means of teaching determine tactics and strategies of teaching

Cognitive principle is the leading one the in system of methodological principles.

Cognitive activity of a person is a universal quality which characterizes every individual in his process of cognition of the world, creating his own vision of the world, his cognitive image of culture of the country, whose language they study and of their own country.

In the result of his cognitive activity the person creates mental constructions, cognitive structures, frames of knowledge about the world, a system of knowledge of the target language.

Cognitive structures of knowledge as components of general cognitive mechanism form a set of information stored in memory which form new language consciousness (языковое сознание).

The cognitive mental structure having different aspects-social, linguacultural, sociocultural is formed on the basis of the Native language and culture of the learners as the “subjects of intercultural communication” in the process of their resocialization.

The initial stage of the formation of intercultural communicative competence suggests actualization of the cognitive-social aspect of the mental structures of the language learners and the beginning of resocialization .

The cognitive –linguacultural aspect of the cognitive structures reveals itself in the formation of the so-called “cultural models” of language behavior in the process of acquisition of a FL.

We acquire our native language and culture affectively, not cognitively. Our cognitive awareness comes later when we start to school. However most of us do not become aware of specific patterns of culture until we meet someone from another culture who makes understand that our systems of reference to the world of reality are different.

Actually it is possible to find over 500 definitions of the word or concept of culture. My favorite definitions are: 1) culture is everything; 2) it is a system of communications that makes a human society possible (Gregory J. Trifonovich. Culture learning/ Culture Teaching/.

Linguacultural principle suggests that language and culture are inceparapable in FL teaching; it also suggests the formation of “linguacultural complexes.

3. Culture and fl teaching

Co-teaching of language and culture suggests that in the process of FL teaching they are integrated.

The use of “cultural realia and cultural values, cultural universals” is very important:

1. in the field of language competence: Mc Donalds

Could you consider doing this? Сделай это!

In the English language expressions of commands are more extensive

2. in the field of discourse competence: greetings

Hello (distance of power) In Russian culture most popular themes are wages, politics, sex, religion but in English culture they are a tabo…

3. In the field of language (grammar) competence

No trespassing is appreciated! - По газонам не ходить

No smoking in this area! - Курить строго запрещается

No diving! - Купание запрещено

From the examples we see that the imperative in the native (Russian) language corresponds to the impersonal sentences in the English language

4. in the field of vocabulary: Vocabulary is very sensitive to culture: Mikki Mouse, матрешка, Mc Donalds, home, community, privacy friendship);

“Citizen”- a person who lives in a particular city or town, esp one who has voting or other rights there (Longman)

It is very important to use case-studies the types of which are illustrated by Elizariova G. V.

1. A Russian girl- Natasha is an exchange student at an American University. Once she had a nice talk with an American girl Jane at a party. Before the departure. Jane said: It was nice to meet you. Do not hesitate to let me know if I can help you. We need to talk again. I’ll call you soon. It is so exciting to get to know what is happening in Russia now. Over 2 weeks Natasha was waiting for the call from Jane. Nobody called her. Then Natasha met Jane on campus. Jane smiled and waved her hand but did not even stop. Next time they met in the dining centre. Jane talked lively but did not mention her promise to call. When Natasha asked Jane to help her to use the e-mail provided by the University system Jane answered it was quite simple and that the lab assistant would be resourceful. Natasha felt lonely and unhappy. What happened? Comment on the episode.

2. Another case-study. Liza was an American teacher from Peace Corpus. She worked with our students for some time and then suddenly decided to retire. Her only explanation was: They are cheating me. Always cheating!

• Comment on the case from the point of view of cultural values.

In the process of work with an authentic text it is recommend to use cultural comments at different stages of work: Pre-reading stage, while- reading stage, post- reading stage.

Recommended literature

1. Kунанбаева С. С. Современное иноязычное образование: методология и теории Алматы, 2005 г.

2. G. Trifonovich. Culture learning/ Culture Teaching/Readings on English as a second language. Cambridge, 1980, h 550

3. Г. В. Елизарова Культура и обучение ИЯ, Санкт-Петербург 2005

Questions for self-control

1. What is communicative competence, its structure?

2. What is a principle?

3. What are the methodological principles, their essence?

4. What techniques can be used in teaching cultural aspect of the language?

Module 2

Lecture № 4

Language Teaching Methodology

Plan

1. Overview of Language Teaching Methodology

2. Types of Learning Associated with the CLT Approach

3. Principles of Language Learning

The word "methodology" is itself often misinterpreted or ill-understood.  It is usually given lip-service as an explanation for the way a given teacher goes about his/her teaching, a sort of umbrella-term to describe the job of teaching another language.  Most often, methodology is understood to mean methods in a general sense, and in some cases it is even equated to specific teaching techniques.  It does (or should) in fact mean and involve much more than that.  I've found that Brown's (1994:51) definitions (reflecting current usage at the time and drawn from earlier attempts to break down and classify elements to do with methodology) are the most useful:

Methodology . The study of pedagogical practices in general (including theoretical underpinnings and related research).  Whatever considerations are involved in "how to teach" are methodologic.

Approach

Theoretical positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the nature of language learning, and the applicability of both to pedagogical settings.

Method

A generalized set of classroom specifications for accomplishing linguistic objectives.  Methods tend to be primarily concerned with teacher and student roles and behaviors and secondarily with such features as linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials.  They are almost aways thought of as being broadly applicable to a variety of audiences in a variety of contexts.

Curriculum/Syllabus

Designs for carrying out a particular language program.  Features include a primary concern with the specification of linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials to meet the needs of a designated group of learners in a defined context.

Technique

Any of a wide variety of exercises, activities, or devices used in the language classroom for realizing lesson objectives.

Types of Learning Associated with the CLT Approach

Interactive Learning: 

This concept goes right to the heart of communication itself, stressing the dual roles of "receiver" and "sender" in any communicative situation.  Interaction creates the "negotiation between interlocutors" which in turn produces meaning (semantics).  The concept of interactive learning necessarily entails that there will be a lot of pair and group work in the classroom, as well as genuine language input from the "real world" for meaningful communication.

Learner-centered Learning: 

This kind of instruction involves the giving over of some "power" in the language learning process to the learners themselves.  It also strives to allow for personal creativity and input from the students, as well as taking into account their learning needs and objectives.

Cooperative Learning: 

This concept stresses the "team" like nature of the classroom and emphasizes cooperation as opposed to competition.  Students share information and help, and achieve their learning goals as a group.

Content-based Learning: 

This kind of learning joins language learning to content/subject matter and engages them both concurrently.  Language is seen as a tool or medium for aquiring knowledge about other things, instantly proving its usefulness.  An important factor in this kind of learning is that the content itself determines what language items need to be mastered, not the other way around.  When students study math or science using English as the medium, they are more intrinsically motivated to learn more of the language.

Task-based Learning:  This concept equates the idea of a "learning task" to a language learning technique in itself.  This could be a problem solving activity or a project, but the task has a clear objective, appropriate content, a working/application procedure, and a set range of outcomes.

The PPP Approach to Communicative Language Teaching

"PPP" (or the "3Ps") stands for Presentation, Practice and Production - a common approach to communicative language teaching that works through the progression of three sequential stages.

Presentation represents the introduction to a lesson, and necessarily requires the creation of a realistic (or realistic-feeling) "situation" requiring the target language to be learned.  This can be achieved through using pictures, dialogs, imagination or actual "classroom situations".  The teacher checks to see that the students understand the nature of the situation, then builds the "concept" underlying the language to be learned using small chunks of language that the students already know.  Having understood the concept, students are then given the language "model" and angage in choral drills to learn statement, answer and question forms for the target language.  This is a very teacher-orientated stage where error correction is important.

Practice usually begins with what is termed "mechanical practice" - open and closed pairwork.  Students gradually move into more "communicative practice" involving procedures like information gap activities, dialog creation and controlled roleplays.  Practice is seen as the frequency device to create familiarity and confidence with the new language, and a measuring stick for accuracy.  The teacher still directs and corrects at this stage, but the classroom is beginning to become more learner-centered.

Production is seen as the culmination of the language learning process, whereby the learners have started to become independent users of the language rather than students of the language.  The teacher's role here is to somehow facilitate a realistic situation or activity where the students instinctively feel the need to actively apply the language they have been practicing.  The teacher does not correct or become involved unless students directly appeal to him/her to do so.

The PPP approach is relatively straight forward, and structured enough to be easily understood by both students and new or emerging teachers.  It is a good place to start in terms of applying good communicative language teaching in the classroom.  It has also been criticized considerably for the very characteristic that makes it the easiest method for 'beginner' teachers, that is, that it is far too teacher-orientated and over controlled. 

Principles of Language Learning

Language learning principles are generally sorted into three sub-groupings: Cognitive Principles, Affective Principals and Linguistic Principles.  Principles are seen as theory derived from research, to which teachers need to match classroom practices.  Here are some brief summaries of the principles that fall into each grouping:

Cognitive Principles

Automaticity: Subconcious processing of language with peripheral attention to language forms;

• Meaningful Learning: This can be contrasted to Rote Learning, and is thought to lead to better long term retention;

• Anticipation of Rewards: Learners are driven to act by the anticipation of rewards, tangible or intangible;

• Intrinsic Motivation: The most potent learning "rewards" are intrinsically motivated within the learner;

• Strategic Investment: The time and learning strategies learners invest into the language learning process.

• Affective Principles

• Language Ego: Learning a new language involves developing a new mode of thinking - a new language "ego";

• Self-Confidence: Success in learning something can be equated to the belief in learners that they can learn it;

• Risk-Taking: Taking risks and experimenting "beyond" what is certain creates better long-term retention;

• Language-Culture Connection: Learning a language also involves learning about cultural values and thinking.

• Linguistic Principles

• Native Language Effect: A learner's native language creates both facilitating and interfering effects on learning;

• Interlanguage: At least some of the learner's development in a new language can be seen as systematic;

• Communicative Competence: Fluency and use are just as important as accuracy and usage - instruction needs to be aimed at organizational, pragmatic and strategic competence as well as psychomotor skills Once a teacher has a solid understanding of the methodology and philosophy involved in various kinds of Language Teaching approaches, he/she can begin to design lesson plans orientated at facilitating this process in the classroom.  While adaptability and spontaneity are essential personality traits in a teacher, without thoughtful lesson planning a teacher is basically teaching "at random"  without a logical and pre-determined course to follow.  Lessons conducted with poor (or no) effective planning will result in students struggling to conceptually understand the relevance and usefulness of the language they are learning.  They may end up practicing language forms they do not instinctively understand, and without effective prompts to use it in a "productive" way, it is likely to go in one ear and out the other.  Entrenched errors and a lack of "conceptual understanding" can develop easily as a result of this.  The amount of planning and thought a teacher puts into his/her lessons really depends on how much they want the class to achieve.  Using pre-selected textbooks helps to select and organize language items, but a textbook can be limited when it comes to facilitating:

• -> Recycling and Revision of Language

• -> Combining Language Item 

• -> Combining Phonics/Pronunciation issues with Key Language

• -> Identifying and Rectifying areas of particular difficulty for YOUR students

• -> Identifying and Rectifying areas in need of Remedial work

• -> Realistic Engaging/Presentation and Production/Activation of Language

Lecture 5

Modern approaches to forming Intercultural communicative competence

Lingua-cultural approach to teaching Reading and Writing Proficiency

Plan

1. What is Reading Proficiency? What competences does it need? What strategies for developing reading do you know? Why is the choice of culturally appropriate materials for Reading Proficiency important?

2. Traditional and non traditional approaches to Teaching Writing and Written speech. What competences are involved in good Writing? Socio-cultural and lingua-cultural aspects in writing and Written speech

What is Reading Proficiency? What competences does it need? What strategies for developing reading do you know? Why is the choice of culturally appropriate materials for Reading Proficiency important

Reading proficiency as an integral part of speech competence demands linguistic competence, strategic competence, socio-cultural competence (cultural awareness) and discourse competence and integration with other skills

Linguistic competence Strategic competence

Reading Proficiency Integration with other

skills (listening, speaking

writing)

Socio-cultural Competence Discourse competence

(cultural awareness of realia, (looking for markers of coherence

cultural backgrounds) & cohesion in the written text for

the purpose of reading

comprehension

Traditional segregated skills approach when writing is divorced from speaking or listening in divorced from reading is not effective because it is non-communicative. Practice has proved that isolation of skills leads to a communicative deadlock. A person who can read adequately but cannot speak will have a serious problem in academic education, in communication. The courses labeled “Intermediate Reading” are doomed to failure for they do not use the potential of the subject, of the topics (themes) in different spheres of communication. In interacted-skill instruction, learners are exposed to authentic language and are involved in activities that are interesting and meaningful. Integrating skill has many advantages:

1. Learners have a chance to see the richness and complexity of the language used for communication;

2. The language becomes a real means of interaction between people;

3. Teachers are given the power and opportunity to develop students’ progress in different skills at the same time;

4. In integrated skill approach the language material is acquired in real context not as discrete language points;

5. Integrated skill instruction is highly motivating at all stages;

6. The significant role of back-ground knowledge is evident when skills are integrated in communication

Linguistic competence in regard to Reading involves using grammar, vocabulary and phonetic knowledge to help understand what is being read. In addition, linguistic competence includes knowledge of the alphabet and the punctuation of the language.

Strategic competence. In reading strategic competence refers to possessing useful strategies for compensating the missing knowledge (gaps in knowledge). These strategies include the use of clues available, power of guessing, background knowledge, and context (content).

Guessing is a very useful strategy and it can be taught and practiced in classroom: Good readers:

1. Read extensively;

2. Integrate information in the text with what they already know (see “schemata theory”);

3. Are motivated

4. Have a purpose for reading

5. Read in different situations where written language serves real functions (entertainment, information, direction)

Reading serves various purposes in different countries and cultures place different emphases on reading texts. For example, in the USA and in Europe there is a great emphasis on bedtime stories and children are brought up hearing stories and fairy-tales when they go to bed. This tradition however is absent in many Asian countries. According to “DEAR” programme in one of American Universities students were to Drop Everything and Read.

What strategies for developing reading do you know?

Rebecca L. Oxford (1990) suggests a number of practical ideas for helping students to create self-esteem and self-confidence by using effective strategies: skimming, scanning, writing key words and sentences from the text, summarizing paragraphs, writing glossary, guessing the meaning of new words from the context, using the illustrations to guess the forthcoming text, analyzing the text.

Among the strategies used in reading the following ones are often mentioned: keeping meaning is mind, skipping unknown words and guessing from the context; using the title and the illustration; using context clues, etc.

Why is the choice of culturally appropriate materials for Reading Proficiency important?

Socio-cultural competence in Reading refers to cultural awareness that helps to understand what is being read. For this it is important not only to choose culturally appropriate techniques but it is also important to choose culturally appropriate reading material. First of all it must be authentic. Even beginning students need exposure to authentic language that is used in every day communication, in conversations, magazines and books, slogans and traffic signs, posters and menus, etc. Authentic texts are always contextualized even when they are simplified, for example, American children frequently ask their parents for money when they are away from home in college. Here is the telegram that a son sent his father.

Dear Dad

No mon, no fun, your son

Here is the telegram that the father sent back to his son:

Dear Son

So sad, too bad, your dad.

The background helps to understand the humorous effect of the telegrams.

Culturally appropriate reading materials should be chosen in accordance with the principle of accessibility: neither too easy, nor too difficult.

Another concern in choosing reading materials for students is cultural relevance appropriateness. Cultural relevance is directly related to schemata (or frame) theory. Students may find the text uninteresting and difficult because it is based on unfamiliar cultural material students don’t understand. Such cultural gaps will interfere with the students’ comprehension. For example, Cartoni-Hawey (1987) tells of a teacher who was reading a story to her class in the United States. In the story, two children brought their sick grandmother some beautiful chrysanthemums. When the teacher interrupted the reading to ask what would happen next, she was surprised that her French student answered that the grandmother was going to die. When the teacher suggested that the chrysanthemums might help the grandmother to feel better, the student looked confused. They had been taught in France that chrysanthemums, a symbol of death used to decorate graves, should never be given as presents especially to the elderly. Had the teacher been acquainted with the traditional French culture, she would have explained that in the United States chrysanthemums are not considered an omen of death. The story illustrates that students from different cultural backgrounds attach somewhat different meanings to words, and these differences can result in misunderstandings. These misunderstandings arise because students often lack cultural awareness. The more they know about culture the better they understand the materials or the more familiar the content the easier the recall. Thus, teachers need to become as informed as possible about the various cultures represented by their students and acknowledge and incorporate their students’ cultures whenever possible.

In teaching students Reading proficiency discourse competence is needed in addition to linguistic and socio-cultural competences. They must recognize markers of discourse indicating coherence in the development, balance, continuity and completeness of the text (then, moreover, therefore), rhetorical organization and other textual features.

2) Traditional and non traditional approaches to Teaching Writing and Written speech. What competences are involved in good Writing? Socio-cultural and lingua-cultural aspects in writing and Written speech

In Traditional approaches to teaching writing teachers emphasize grammatical correctness, correct sentence structures, phonetic and grammar rules to follow in order to avoid mistakes. Nowadays according to the cognitive lingua-cultural and in integrated skill approach Writing proficiency is regarded both as a means and as the aim of FLT.

Writing Proficiency involves language competence, (i.e. grammar and vocabulary), socio-cultural competence and discourse competence which enables them to organize their texts cohesively and coherently with respect to purpose, genre, topic. In reference to Writing Strategic competence enables language learners to use strategies to write effectively. The scheme shows the interaction of Competences in Writing:

Linguistic competence Strategic competence (getting ideas

grammar, vocabulary getting started writing drafts revising)

Writing Proficiency Integration with other skills

Socio-cultural

competence (Rules and principles that Discourse competence (Cohesion enable writers to vary their use of the language coherence)

with respect to genre, topic, purpose)

Linguistic competence in regard to Writing Proficiency involves correct grammar, vocabulary and phonetic knowledge in order to express ideas adequately to the context.

Added to linguistic competence writing proficiency needs developed socio-cultural competence which enables language learners to vary their use of the language taking into account the topic, the genre, the purpose and the addressee.

Discourse competence in Writing makes the text well organized cohesively and coherently which shows semantic relation between elements in the text and which is crucial for the interpretation of it. For this some devices are used: reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion

For example:

1. Slowly, James moved the tables away from the door. He moved only the large ones that were blocking the doorway. (substitution)

2. He was a good Worker. Therefore, he was given a prize. (conjunction)

Appropriate use of devices contributes to the coherence of the whole text.

Strategic competence enables students to write logically and effectively. For example before writing an essay we may brainstorm to get ideas together, draft, make up a plan, make notes, etc.

Students from different countries have different preferences in choosing devices, topics, the ways they develop their topics-all this is related to their own cultural experiences, cultural background especially at level 1-2 of cultural awareness in a FL.

Integration of 4 language skills reading, writing, speaking and listening leads to improved FL writing ability. But the improvement is not automatic. Being a good reader does not make one a good writer. Reading serves to give ideas, data, model sentence pattern and structures but a student will be able to become good in writing only by writing” (Jacobs, 1983)

The more experience students have in writing the more fluent and correct their writing becomes. In Traditional approaches to teaching writing and Written speech language- focused activities rather than learner-centered activities are used: teachers emphasize grammatical correctness, correct sentence structure; feedback is given when the writing is finished; students are discouraged from making mistakes.

Nowadays writing and Written speech are regarded in the frame work of Intercultural communicative competence: students are taught writing and written speech for communication on intercultural level. Students are taught to discover effective Writing techniques and strategies under the guidance of the teachers. Writing is not only individual, it is collaborative. For example, in creating projects

Students assist one another in composing texts, they shape and refine their thoughts: “A writer’s normal task is a thinking task” (Flower and Hayes, 1977), because Writing is a cognitive-communicative process. The 3 stages of Writing prove it:

Pre- Writing activities

Idea-gathering Information-gathering

Journals Interviews

Brainstorming (sharing ideas Clustering Dialogues

or in small groups Cubing (6 sides of the cube) Peer Reviews

1 describe (color, size, shape)

2 compare (what is like or unlike)

3 associate (similar or dissimilar

4 analyze

5 apply

6 Argue (for it or against it Why)

The Pre-Writing Stage in very important: it involves finding a topic, gathering ideas, generating ideas, shaping, refining, organizing (taking into account the audience, the genre, the tasks, etc.)