Methods and Approaches to ELT

GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD... COMING SOON!!!

Learning Styles

Many people recognize that each person prefers different learning styles and techniques. Learning styles group common ways that people learn. Everyone has a mix of learning styles. Some people may find that they have a dominant style of learning, with far less use of the other styles. Others may find that they use different styles in different circumstances. There is no right mix. Nor are your styles fixed. You can develop ability in less dominant styles, as well as further develop styles that you already use well.

Using multiple learning styles and “multiple intelligences” for learning is a relatively new approach. This approach is one that educators have only recently started to recognize. Traditional schooling used (and continues to use) mainly linguistic and logical teaching methods. It also uses a limited range of learning and teaching techniques. Many schools still rely on classroom and book-based teaching, much repetition, and pressured exams for reinforcement and review. A result is that we often label those who use these learning styles and techniques as “bright.” Those who use less favored learning styles often find themselves in lower classes, with various not-so-complimentary labels and sometimes lower quality teaching. This can create positive and negative spirals that reinforce the belief that one is “smart” or “dumb.”

By recognizing and understanding your own learning styles, you can use techniques better suited to you. This improves the speed and quality of your learning.

The learning styles are:

Visual (spatial). You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding.

Aural (auditory-musical). You prefer using sound and music.

Verbal (linguistic). You prefer using words, both in speech and writing.

Physical (kinesthetic). You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch.

Logical (mathematical). You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems.

Social (interpersonal). You prefer to learn in groups or with other people.

Solitary (intrapersonal). You prefer to work alone and use self-study.

Why Learning Styles? Understand the basis of learning styles.

Your learning styles have more influence than you may realize. Your preferred styles guide the way you learn. They also change the way you internally represent experiences, the way you recall information, and even the words you choose.

Research shows us that each learning style uses different parts of the brain. By involving more of the brain during learning, we remember more of what we learn. Researchers using brain-imaging technologies have been able to find out the key areas of the brain responsible for each learning style.

For example:

Visual. The occipital lobes at the back of the brain manage the visual sense. Both the occipital and parietal lobes manage spatial orientation.
Aural. The temporal lobes handle aural content. The right temporal lobe is especially important for music.

Verbal. The temporal and frontal lobes, especially two specialized areas called Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas (in the left hemisphere of these two lobes).

Physical. The cerebellum and the motor cortex (at the back of the frontal lobe) handle much of our physical movement.

Logical. The parietal lobes, especially the left side, drive our logical thinking.

Social. The frontal and temporal lobes handle much of our social activities. The limbic system (not shown apart from the hippocampus) also influences both the social and solitary styles. The limbic system has a lot to do with emotions, moods and aggression.

Solitary. The frontal and parietal lobes, and the limbic system, are also active with this style.

Taken from http://www.learning-styles-online.com/overview/

Second Language Acquisition Theory

"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill." Stephen Krashen

"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." Stephen Krashen

"The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production." Stephen Krashen

Krashen states that we can acquire language as children do. On his theory, he give the difference between acquisition and learning.

Acquisition is the unconscious process which children use to develop and to absorb their native language.

Learning is a conscious process, according to http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html, is the product of formal instruction which results in conscious knowledge about the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.

On Krashen´s theory, there are four hypothesis:

The Input Hypothesis:

According to http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html, in this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence.
In Krashen´s view acquisition is better than learning, this hypothesis talks about acquisition process which learners acquired language with the language direct exposition.

The Natural Order Hypothesis:

It express that the grammatical structure acquisition has a natural order, some grammatical structures are acquired earlier than others.

The Monitor Hypothesis:

In this hypothesis we can see both acquisition and learning joined. “According to Krashen, the role of the monitor is - or should be - minor, being used only to correct deviations from 'normal' speech and to give speech a more 'polished' appearance.” http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html

Krashen gives three kind of learners and he classifies them for the monitor use:
1. over-users who always use the monitor
2. under-users who never use the monitor
3. optimal users who use the monitor appropriately

The Affective Filter Hypothesis:

“When learners are bored, angry, frustrated, nervous, unmotivated or stressed, they may not be receptive to language input and so they 'screen' the input. This screen is referred to as the affective filter. This is an imaginary wall that is placed between a learner and language input. If the filter is on, the learner is blocking out input. The filter turns on when anxiety is high, self-esteem is low, or motivation is low”. http://bogglesworldesl.com/glossary/affectivefilter.htm

Teaching and Learning

TEACHING implies to give the instructions, directions in order to reach the goal that is to obtain the learning. Sometimes this action is applied in the persons of teachers but we can also learn with the experience of others persons.

LEARNING is the process of acquisition of knowledge we can obtain it by different ways. Learning can be related with motivation because motivation is related with the curiosity we have to absorb any kind of knowledge.

What science migth help to solve this problem?

It is commonly assumed that the educational level of the speaker is a variable that is directly related to his/her lexical repertorie. Is this totally true? Why do people with similar education level have quite different lexical repertorie?

The science wich studies the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context on the way language is used, how lects differ between groups separated by certain social variables, e.g., ethnicity, religion, status, gender, level of education, etc., and how creation and adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in social class or socio-economic classes. As the usage of a language varies from place to place (dialect), language usage varies among social classes is named SOCIOLINGUISTICS.

Sociolinguistics is the science that can help to solve this problem if we approach the problem from a social point of view because lexical repertoire can change not only because of the educational level, it can change because of the culture, the customs among social groups.

Post by Andrea Di Cuonzo

Applied Linguistics History

The tradition of applied linguistics established itself in part as a response to the narrowing of focus in linguistics with the advent in the late 1950s of generative linguistics, and has always maintained a socially accountable role, demonstrated by its central interest in language problem.
Although the field of applied linguistics started from Europe and the United States, the field rapidly flourished in the international context.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_linguistics

From the begining Applied linguistics attemps to study and solve the problems about language and language acquisition, through the time others sciences supported applied linguistics in order to find the solution of language-related problems in the real world.
Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, ethnography and sociology.The most important aspect is that applied linguistics gives us, as future teachers of a foreign language, the knowledge that we need to solve the language-related problems and depending on the case the science that can help to give a solution to the problem.

By Andrea Di Cuonzo