The nature of approaches and methods in language teaching

3. What is an Approach ?
0. Underlying each Method is a theory
on the nature of language and a theory on
the Nature of language learning both of
which comprise the approach.
0. These theories are derived from the
areas of Linguisties, Sociolinguistics,
Psycholinguistics, and are the Source of
principles and practices of language
teaching.

4. What is an Approach
influenced by ?
Theory
of
language

5. Approach
Structural View :
language as a system
of Structurally defined
elements
meaningFunctional View :
language as a
vehicle of
functional meaning
Interactional View :
language as a vehicle of
Interpersonal relations and
social transactions between
individuals

6. What is a Method ?
0. All methods include prescriptions for
the teacher and the learners.
0. All methods are a pre-packaged set of
specifications of how the teacher should
teach and how the learner should learn
derived from a particular theory of
language and a theory of language
learning.

7. 0. For the teacher, methods prescribe
what materials and activities should be
used, how they should be used, and
what the role of the teacher should be.
0. For learners, methods prescribe what
approach to learning the learner should
take and what roles the learner should
adopt in the classroom

8. Method
Objectives
Syllabus
Types of learning
and activities

9. Objectives
0. Objectives of methods vary : oral skills,
general communication skills, accurate
grammar and Prounciation, basic grammar
and vocabulary of a language.
0. Process Oriented ?
0. Measuring stick : degree of emphases on
vocab acquisition and how grammatical and
pronunciation errors treated.

10. Syllabus
0. Syllabus is the level at which theory is put
into practice and which choices are made about
the content to be taught, the skill to be
developed, the order of the content etc.
0. The theory of language adopted will affect
the organisation and selection of language
content.
0. Different methods have different types of
syllabi associated with them i.e. different ways
of selecting and organising content.

11. Types of learning and
activities
0. Teacher’s role
0. Student’s roles
0. Instructional Material’s
role

12. Teacher’s role
0. Types of functions teachers fulfill.
0. Teacher influence over learning.
0. Degree to which teacher determines
the content for learning.
0. Types of interaction between
teacher and learners.

13. Student’s roles
0. Planning their own learning program
.
0. Monitoring and evaluating their own
progress.
0. Interacting with others.
0. Tutoring other students.
0. learning from other resources.

14. Instructional Material’s
Role
0. Primary functions of materials.
0. The from materials take.
(textbook, audiovisual)
0. Relation of materials to other
input.
0. Assumption made about
teachers and students / learners.

16. 0. It’s what really happens in the
classroom, in the actual teaching.
0. These techniques must be
coherent with the method, and
therefore, they must be in harmony
with the approach.
0. Some techniques can be found in
different methods whereas other
ones are specific to a given method.