teaching

1. Teaching by Principles
Lecture 10
ENG 450
NSj

2. Introduction
 it’s important for teachers to consider elements that are at
the core of language pedagogy:
 foundational principles that can form the building blocks
for teacher’s own theoretical rationale. For teachers, such
principles comprise their approach to language teaching.
 However, one may be thinking that such a principled
approach to language teaching sounds only logical.
 There are 8 principles organized in an order.
 The rationale for the organization is to move from the
more cognitive psychological and individual principles to
transactions of the self in relation to others, and finally to
the learner as an agent within a cultural milieu.

3. 1. Automaticity: Definition
 Efficient second language learning involves a timely progression from
control of a few language forms to fluid and error-free automatic
processing ( in both production and comprehension) of a relatively
unlimited number of language forms.
 Development of fluency is usually through extensive long-term
practice is aided by a primary focus on meaning, purpose, and
interaction, and a secondary but optimal amount of attention to
language forms.
 Children learning additional languages are classical examples of
developing automatic skills “naturally” in untutored contexts.
Children mostly focus on the function (meaning) of input and output
rather than form.
 However, for adults, automaticity is sometimes impeded by over
analysis of language forms. In order to cognitively manage the
incredible complexity and quantity of language systems, they need to
develop strategies of high-speed, automatic processing in which
language forms are on the periphery of attention.

4. Basic Principle
 Efficient second language learning involves a
timelt progression from control of a few
language forms to fluid and error-free automatic
processing (in both production and
comprehension) of a relatively unlimited
number of language forms. Development of
fluency, usually through extensive long term
practice is aided by a primary focus on meaning,
purpose, and interaction and a secondary but
optimal amount of attention to language forms.

5. Implications
 1. Classroom activities which are authentic e.g.
task-based activities, group or pair work
activities.
 2. Focus on form exercises.
 3. Error correction is more effective if students
are made aware of an error and/or are
encouraged to self-correct.
 4. Fluency activities, in which you deliberately do
not focus on forms.

6. 2. Transfer: Definition
 Because L2 learners naturally seek to transfer existing
knowledge/ability to new knowledge or ability, efficient
(and successful) learning will result from a process of
making meaningful associations between a learner’s
existing knowledge, skills, and emotions and the new
material to be learned.
 Transfer of knowledge from L1 to L2: Interlingual transfer
 Overgeneralization/transfer within L2: Intralingual transfer
 Application of knowledge, skill, or emotion acquired in one
situation to new situations.
 Transfer can be positive (advancing toward an objective) or
negative (interfering with such advancement).

7. Transfer: interlingual & intralingual transfer
 A historical look at research on language learning in the
middle of the twentieth century reveals an obsession with
transfer, especially from the first to second language, known
as interlingual transfer or interference.
 Some claim that any difficulty in learning an L2 could be
equated to the differences between a learner’s first and
second languages.
 Cross-linguistic influence : It is a recent term in SLA field
which capture the relationship of two or more languages in
contact
 Intralingual transfer (within L2), also known as
overgeneralization is analyzing sources of error in learners’
output and describing interlanguage of learners.

8. Implications
 1. Become acquainted with your students’ backgrounds,
interests, personalities, occupations, hobbies, likes and
dislikes, and ground classroom activities on those
individual characteristics.
 2. When introducing new grammar, vocabulary, or
discourse features, review previously learned materials.
 3. As you teach one skill area __ say, listening __ connect
what students are learning to other skills such as
speaking or reading.
 4. Avoid pitfalls of rote learning. Base your teaching as
much as possible on content that learners can identify
with, as opposed to grammar-driven teaching.

9. 3. Reward: Definition
 Everything we do is predicted on the anticipation of a reward,
whether physical, mental, emotional, or social. The most
powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated: The
behavior stems from needs, wants, or desires within oneself and
is self-rewarding.
 Classroom techniques have a great chance for success if they are
self-rewarding in the perception of the learner: The learners
perform the task because it is fun, interesting, useful, or
challenging, and only secondarily because they anticipate some
cognitive or affective rewards from the teacher.
 The key to make the reward principle work in the language
classroom is to create an optimal blend of extrinsic (teacher-
administered) rewards, especially for the minute-by-minute
routine of a classroom, and intrinsically-driven rewards that
become embedded in a student’s journey toward language
proficiency.

10. Implications
 1. Encourage students to reward each other with
complements and supportive action in group work.
 2. Display enthusiasm and excitement yourself in the
classroom.
 3. Encourage learners to see the intrinsic, long-term
rewards in learning an L2 by pointing out what they
can do with the language, the benefits of being able
to use it, jobs that require it, and so on.
 4. Give your students some choices in types of
activities, content or subject matter so that they feel
some “ownership” of their language development.

11. 4. Self-Regulation: Definition
 Oxford (2011) noted that the key to successful language learning
is selfregulation, “deliberate goal-directed attempts to manage
and control efforts to learn the L2” (p.12). One of the key
foundation stones of effective L2 pedagogy today is to create a
climate in which learners develop autonomy, “the capacity to
control one’s learning” (Benson, 2001, p.290), and self-regulation
is cited as a key ingredient of autonomy (Benson, 2007).
 Teachers encourage learners to “take charge” of their own
learning, and to chart their own “pathways to success” (Brown,
2002b; Benson, 2003). Such self-regulation of course means that
learners are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning
as they develop a battery of strategies for intake, organization,
compensation, output, uptake, and social interaction.

12. Principle
 So, the principle of Self-Regulation states:
 Mastery of an L2 will depend to a great extent on
learners’ ability to proactively take charge of
their learning agenda, to make deliberate, goal-
directed efforts to succeed, and to achieve a
degree of autonomy that will enable them to
continue their journey to success beyond the
classroom and the teacher.

13. Implications
 1. Learners at early stages are more teacher-dependent, later
they become more autonomous and self-dependent.
 2. As learners gain confidence and begin to be able to
experiment with language, implement activities in the classroom
that allow creativity but are not completely beyond the capacity
of students.
 3. Encourage students to set some goals for their self-regulated
learning: a number of vocabulary words to learn (and try out)
each week.
 4. Self-regulation might be aided by checklists, and action can
ensue as a choice on the part of the learner.
 5. Praise students for trying language that’s a little beyond their
present capacity.
 6. Suggest opportunities for students to use their language
outside of the class.

14. 5. Identity & Investment: definition
 Identity: The extent to which L2 learners do not perceive themselves
merely as individual entities but, more importantly, as “an integral
and constitutive part” of the social world to which they are connected.
 Identity on one end of the spectrum is the call for self-regulated
learners to accurately understand themselves as they become aware
of their personal strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and
preferences in styles of learning, thinking, acting, and communicating.
 Investment: the completeness of learners’ participation in that
community is partly predicated on their investment in the long and
often winding road to success (Norton & Gao, 2008). While investment
involves commitment and motivation in the traditional sense, more
importantly, learners are seeking to increase the “value of their
culture capital” (Norton, 2013, p.3).

15. Principle
 Learning to think, feel, act, and communicate in
an L2 is a complex socioaffective process of
perceiving yourself as an integral part of a social
community. The process involves self-awareness,
investment, agency, and a determination, amidst
a host of power issues, to frame your own
identity within the social relationships of a
community.

16. Implications
 1. Give your students credit for the many abilities
and talents they already have, even though they
feel somewhat incapacitated as they struggle with a
new language.
 2. Factors in learners’ identity development in your
decisions about whom to call on, when and how to
give corrective feedback, how to constitute smack
groups and pairs, and how “tough” you can be with
a student.
 3. Give your students opportunities to make choices
as much as your curriculum will permit.

17. 6. Interaction: Definition
 For some time now, L2 researchers have been focusing on a
construct known a willingness to communicate (WTC), “a state of
readiness to engage in the L2, the culmination of processes that
prepare the learner to initiate L2 communication with a specific
person at a specific time” (MacIntyre et al. p.82).
 The key to communication, and ultimately to automatic
production and comprehension of the L2, lies in what Long (2007)
called the interaction hypothesis.
 Interaction is the basis of L2 learning, through which learners are
engaged both in enhancing their own communicative abilities and
in socially constructing their identities through collaboration and
negotiation. The primary role of the teacher is to optimally
scaffold the learner’s development within a community of
practice.

18. Implications
 1. Give ample verbal and nonverbal assurance to students,
affirming your belief in the student’s ability.
 2. Sequence (scaffold) techniques from easier to more
difficult.
 3. Create an atmosphere in the classroom that encourages
students to try out language, to venture a response, and
not to wait for someone else to volunteer language.
 4. Provide reasonable challenges in your techniques make
them neither too easy nor too hard.
 5. Help your students to understand what calculated risk-
taking is, lest some feel that they must blurt out any old
response.

19. 7. Languaculture: definition
 Agar (1994) used the term languaculture to
emphasize the inseparability of language and
culture. “the langua in languaculture is about
discourse, not just about words and sentences. And
the culture in languaculture is about meanings
that include, but go well beyond, what the
dictionary and grammar offers” (p.96).
 Culture is a complex, dynamic web of customs and
mores and rules that involves attitudes, values,
norms, and beliefs that are imagined to be shared
by a community.

20. Principle
 Whenever you teach a language, you also teach a
complex system of culture customs, values, and
ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. As learners
redefine their identities as they learn an L2, they
can be aided by a direct approach to
acknowledging cultural differences, an open
affirmation of learners’ struggles, of the value of
their “home” culture, and of their self-worth in
potential feelings of powerlessness.

21. Implications
 1. Discuss cross-cultural differences with your students,
emphasizing that no culture is “better” than another, but
that cross-cultural understanding is an important facet
of learning a language.
 2. Include among your techniques certain activities and
materials that illustrate the connection between
language and culture, especially those that are more
salient for your practical context.
 3. Screen your techniques for material that may be
culturally offensive.
 4. Stress the importance of the L2 as a powerful tool for
adjustment in a new culture.

22. 8. Agency: Definition
 From early childhood we experience demands for
structure imposed by “outside” agents: parents, teachers,
peers, and social norms.
 Agency provides an ample stockpile of pedagogical
implications for the classroom teacher in concrete
methodological terms. It’s a construct that is so
comprehensive in scope that it subsumes all the other
principle we’ve described thus far – so sweeping.
 In simple terms, agency refers to “people’s ability to
make choices, take control, self-regulate, and thereby
pursue their goals as individuals, leading potentially to
personal or social transformation” (Duff, 2012, p.417).