LN306 setting the scene for discussions around language teaching and learning

1. Language learning
pedagogies
Approaches, beliefs and methods.

2. Definitions
 “Method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical
concept” (Oxford dictionary)
 “Art, science or profession of teaching” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
 “the discipline that deals with the theory and practice of teaching” (Wikipedia)

3. What is teaching?
 Brainstorm and discussion.
 Some perspectives:
 Freire on the banking model of education
 The blank slate or tabula rasa
 Filling a pail or lighting a fire?

4. What is learning?
 How and where does it happen?
 What are the ideal conditions for learning?
 Reflect on your own experiences and describe one example of when you learned
something new.

5. Methods, methodologies and beliefs
Macaro (2003) uses the four way stretch diagram to represent the polarisation of
theories of language acquisition:
The horizontal axis represents the polarisation between theories of language input. Implicit input
arises from natural exposure and sub-conscious processing, explicit from teaching and conscious
processing. The vertical axis represents the concept of how language input is processed. Nativist
implies that language learning is an innate skill, interactionist that language is a specialised form
of knowledge that is acquired through interaction with the environment. He adds this observation:
―Of course polarizations are never absolute and theories as well as individuals place
themselves on various stages along the continuum of these axes.(p22)