English Language Teaching: History, Approaches and Methods

As a (probably!?) would-be teacher of English, you should be aware of some major and recurrent issues or problems in contemporary language teaching methodology. Look at this adaptation of Cook’s survey about preferences for teaching methods (Cook, 2008: 236-237).

1. Complete the survey to discover the name of the method which best suits your teaching preferences.
2. Now answer the following questions:

a) Cook includes four very important issues in foreign language teaching. Can you list some more?

b) How do you think that the critical study of other methods can help you to address all these issues?

c) Think about your own perspectives or teaching preferences about all such issues. At the end of the course, check whether your issues listed and your own perspectives are completely new or whether they have already been approached before. What can you learn from this simple but revealing task?

d) On the basis of your response to c), have your teaching preferences varied from the beginning of the course until the end?

1. Read Chapter 1 in Sánchez, A. (2009).La enseñanza de idiomas en los últimos cien años. Métodos y enfoques. Madrid: SGEL, S. A. You will need this information to complete activity 2.
2. Fill in each gap of Table 1 with the appropriate term for each element of a method as used by Anthony (1963), Richards and Rodgers (1986, 2001) and Sánchez (1997, 2009). After having performed this activity, which author’s definition of a method is clearer for you? Why?

Table 1. Elements of language teaching method: Comparing authors’ different terminology

3. Go to Practice Activity 1, Unit 1.1. Read questions 1-4 again.
   1. Complete the first column of Table 2 below with a summarizing phrase that describes what was tested in each question.
   2. Which elements of a method do the questions refer to? Put a tick where it corresponds in Table 2.

Table 2. Getting to know the elements of a language teaching method

Read chapter 3 in Sánchez (1997).

The completion of this practice activity will be very helpful for Unit 2.2., where you will need to re-read chapter 3 in Sánchez (1997) to perform the second practice activity.

1. Make sure you understand:
   • Why both traditions live together.
   • The reason behind the existence of one and another for both Latin and vulgar/vernacular languages.
2. Make notes about important works from the two traditions. Use the following headings:
   • author,
   • title,
   • year,
   • type of work (grammar, book of dialogue, glossary),
   • languages involved (L1 and L2).

Read pages 31-36 in Sánchez (1997) and chapter 1 in Howatt (2004). Then complete Table 3 about language teaching in the Middle Ages. Some data have already been included (in blue). In those cases, when you see […], it means that you need to add more information in the cell in question. If you successfully complete this exercise, you will have a very complete summary of Unit 2.1. at your disposal. Good luck!

Unit_2.1_Practice_Activity_Table_3

Re-read chapter 3 in Sánchez (1997) and read chapters 2 and 3 (pp. 18-43) in Howatt (2004). Revise your class notes about this unit and complete Table 4 about these works. Since you did practice activity 1 in Unit 1.3, you should already have the information from some of them; others will be new to you. In "Tradition" and "Type of work", you just need to add a tick where it corresponds.

Unit_2.2_Practice_Activity_Table_4

1. Analyse this unit from Velázquez, M. & Simonée, T. (1895). Ollendorff’s New Method of Learning to Read, Write, and Speak the Spanish Language. New York: D. Appleton and Company.

   Please identify:

   1. The languages involved: L1 and L2.
   2. The parts that the lesson consists of.
   3. Learning objectives of each part. Teaching techniques to achieve such objectives.
2. Complete Table 5 and compare Ollendorff's "practical method" against the G-T.
3. “The best thing that can be said for Tiarks’ book is that it is only 172 pages long”. (Howatt, 2004: 157). After having performed the two previous activities, do you think that this statement could also apply to Ollendorff’s “practical method” and its spin-off or what became to be known as the “Traditional Method”?
4. Many authors argue that the objective of the G-T in its purest representation in the 19^th century and Ollendorff’s spin-off Traditional Method in the 20^th and 21^st centuries is to teach students about the target language, but not how to use it. What do you think this means?

1. Read pages 106-110 in Sánchez (1997).
2. Howatt (2004: 159) labelled Ahn and Ollendorff’s “practical method”  as a “halfway house” between the G-T and the Natural Approach in the second half of the 19^th century. Why?

To answer the question, make sure you explain the similarities and differences between Ahn’s and Ollendorff’s “practical method” and the Natural Approach regarding the following points:

1. language teaching objective
2. emphasised skills and language content
3. deductive or inductive mode of learning being favoured
4. role of practice

UNIT 3.2.2. Practice activities

1. You are going to provide a descriptive and critical account of Gouin’s Series Method on your own. In order to do so:
   1. Review your class notes from unit 3.2.1 (the introduction to the Natural Approach in the 19^th century) and your class notes from this unit up to now, especially the anecdote of Gouin’s nephew.
   2. Read the following original series from Gouin (The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages, 1892: 129-130) carefully:

      I walk to the door	I walk.
      I walk near to the door.	I draw near.
      I draw nearer to the door.	I draw nearer and nearer.
      I get to the door.	I get to.
      I stop at the door.	I stop.
      I stretch out my arm.	I stretch out.
      I take hold of the handle.	I take hold.
      I turn the handle.	I turn.
      I open the door.	I open.
      I pull the door.	I pull.
      The door moves.	moves
      The door turns on its hinges.	turns
      The door turns and turns.	turns
      I open the door wide.	I open
      I let go of the handle.	I let go

   3. Once you have read your class notes and the series, answer the following questions. Do not forget to justify your answer and exemplify when necessary:
      1. General principle of organization behind the arrangement of his series or the principle to structure experience?
      2. Function of language considered following Halliday’s (1973) distinction? Circle the correct option(s):
         • Ideational
         • Personal
         • Textual
      3. Emphasised language content: Parts of speech? Why?
      4. Which part of speech and which specific word belonging to this part of speech is repeated throughout most of the sequence? Why?
      5. Emphasised unit of language: Word? Sentence?
      6. Language learning principles?
      7. Outcome of language learning following Gouin’s Series?
      8. Relationship of language in series with real-life language?
      9. On the basis of the previous analysis, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of Gouin’s series?
2. Read pages 125-131 in Sánchez (1997) and pages 178-185 in Howatt (2004). Compare your answers with Gouin’s account of these authors. Complete your previous notes when necessary.
3. Watch the following video where a contemporary teacher talks about her own implementation of Gouin’s series:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJMWAw5L6lk&feature=related

1. Where is the emphasis on language first?
2. Which are the three stages in the implementation of Gouin’s Series?
3. What types of activities are included in the three stages? Which skills are emphasised?
4. What are the main differences between this teacher’s implementation of Gouin’s series and the French author’s original series?
5. What are the advantages of using Gouin’s series according to this teacher? Do you agree?
6. Do you think that the language learning outcome of the contemporary implementation of Gouin’s series is the same as that of the original series?
7. Do you think that the Gouin’s Series are demanding for the teacher? Would you use Gouin’s Series in your teaching at all? Why? Why not?

1. Read pages 122-125 in Sánchez (1997) and pages 187-192 and 198-209 in Howatt (2004). Make sure you understand all the tenets of the Reform Movement. You will need this for activity 2.

2. Read the following quotation and answer the two questions below: 

The Reform has fulfilled its mission. It has laid the ghosts of the grammatical method, which made a fetish of the study of grammar with excessive attention to translation from and into the foreign language. Reading formerly served chiefly as a handmaiden to grammar, and was too exclusively limited to historical-literary works. Speaking ability was kept in the background and correct pronunciation was neglected. Such an antiquated method of teaching is now once and for all impossible. But what the grammatical method neglected, practical and correct use of the spoken language, the reform method has pushed to extremes. In making mastery of the spoken language the chief objective, the nature and function of secondary schools was overlooked, because such an objective under normal conditions of mass instruction is only attainable in a modest degree. The reform method requires not only a teacher who possesses a perfect mastery of the foreign language, but makes such claims on his nervous and physical energy as to entail premature exhaustion. Average pupils, not to mention weaker ones, do not justify the demands made by the oral use of the language; they soon wary, are overburdened and revolt. Early adherents of the new method, after their enthusiasm has been dashed by stern realities, have gradually broken away.

(Breymann & Steinmuller, 1895–1909, cited by Buchanan & MacPhee, 1928: 19ff. From Titone, 1969: 39-40)

1. What are the two major tensions mentioned here that have always existed (and which will probably continue to exist) in foreign language methodology?
2. What do you think that ordinary teachers did to tackle the unfortunate consequences of the strict adoption of the Reform Movement principles as applied to language teaching textbooks?

1. Look at this lesson from a Berlitz textbook. Can you spot any distinctive features of the DM here?
2. Read pages 50-64 in Sánchez (2009), review your class notes and answer the following questions. Make sure you justify your responses. 
   1. Do you think that Berlitz’s method is able to cater for all levels of English and students’ ages? Why? Why not?
   2. How demanding is this method for the teacher in comparison with the G-T and Ollendorff’s “practical method”? Make reference to the role of the student in your answer as well.

This is part 1 of the lesson.

Your teacher will fast-forward with her mouse on the timer below the video image to minute 3.00. This is where the lesson starts, after a brief introduction by Diane Larsen-Freeman, a well-known American applied linguist and methodologist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30mXvCVVjj0&feature=related
This is part 2 of the lesson.

1. You are going to identify key distinctive features of the ALM on your own. In order to do so, please watch the following videos where a teacher is conducting a class following the ALM. Then answer questions a)-j) below.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvz-GLyZ7bM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
   1. What type of language content is emphasised?
   2. What is the order of skills? Which skills are prioritised? Why?
   3. What is the overall structure of the lesson? In other words, which parts can you identify?
   4. What is the approach to language learning: Deductive or inductive?
   5. What is the teacher’s attitude to errors?
   6. What type of interaction is there between teacher and students?
   7. What is the recursive characteristic of all the exercises implemented?
   8. What is the sentence pattern being practised from minute 6:27 until minute 9:48?
   9. Which types of drill are implemented?
   10. Which similarities and differences can you see regarding past methods (G-T, DM)?
   11. One of the five slogans stated by William Moulton about the ALM in 1961 is “Teach the language, not about the language”. What did he mean? How does this differ from the “teaching about the language” distinctive characteristic of the G-T and spin-offs? (Remember activity practice 4 in Sub-block 3.1).
   12. Read pages 65-77 in Sánchez (2009). Complete your answers to practice activities 1 and 2.

1. Look at lessons 71-72 from Alexander, L.G. (1967). First Things First. Student’s Book. Then go to the second page of this file and read sections 4.2.1 and 4.2.2 (pages 14-15) from Criado, R. (2010). The Impact of Activity Sequencing on the Differences between ELT Methods: A Critical Analysis of Sample Units. Porta Linguarum, 14, 7-28 (available at http://www.ugr.es/~portalin/articulos/PL_numero14/1%20The%20Impact%20of%20Activity%20Sequencing_R%20Criado.pdf ; you can find the text of such sections at the end of this page).
   You will need this information to tackle practice activity 2.


2. Answer the following questions by drawing on your first impression of the unit:
   1. Can you spot any similarities and differences with the ALM?
   2. How does it comply with the “seven principles of ELT” stated by Howatt (2004: 299)? Please illustrate your response with examples from the actual unit. In order to answer, you may want to have a look at the extract from Table of Contents which is included before the unit.
   3. Which differences can you see between these SLT lessons and Ollendorff’s “practical method” on the one hand, and the Direct Method, on the other, about the following aspects?
      • Presentation of language
      • Practice activities
3. Read pages 78-85 in Sánchez (2009). Complete your answers to practice activity 2.

1. Read pages 86-94 in Sánchez (2009). You will need all this information to perform practice activities 2 and 3. You may also want to revise the readings from units 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.
2. Look at the extract of a sample lesson from Dickinson, Gilbert, Leveque & Sagot (1975). All’s Well that Starts Well 1. Paris: Librarie Marcel Didier. This is an ELT course based on the AVSG method. Answer the following questions:

1. Can you notice a special feature of the pictures in comparison with those in Alexander’s First Things First?
2. The Teacher’s Book states that “The authors have deliberately used a language that is as authentic as possible. Elementary didactic notions have disappeared and the characters speak with the spontaneity of warm, feeling human beings. […] this expression of feelings and emotions makes the student aware of the prosodic features of the spoken word and thus brings him to a global understanding of speech even before he can recognize the meaning of the individual words and the syntactic structures” (p. 8).
3. How do you think that the filmscript of these pictures helps the learners to recognise “the meaning of the individual words and the syntactic structures”?
4. Think about a language which you cannot speak. Does it make sense to you this role attached to intonation patterns? What is your opinion about Guberina’s conception of language as a psycho-physiological system?

3. WRAP-UP ACTIVITY ON THE STRUCTURALLY BASED METHODS:

Complete Table 6 with the major similarities and differences among the three Structurally based Methods: ALM, SLT and AVSG.

1. Read pages 205-209 in Sánchez (2009). Answer the following questions:
   1. Can you spot any similarities of the Humanistic Methods with the Natural Approach of the 19^th century?
   2. How would you summarise the main influence of the Humanistic Methods on the N-F Syllabuses and CLT?
2. Humanistic methods are explicitly (Suggestopedia) or implicitly (all the other three) driven by Benjamin Franklin’s quotation “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”. Can you explain the relationship of this quotation with Humanistic Methods?

Watch this video on the TPR and answer questions a-e.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZY6XpB214&feature=related

1. What is the part of the speech that this method revolves around?
2. What are the pedagogical techniques implemented in the TPR?
3. What advantages of the TPR are mentioned in terms of language learning theory and pedagogy?
4. Can you think of any disadvantages in terms of targeted levels of proficiency, language content/areas and skills worked upon?
5. Can you find any parallelisms in the teaching techniques with those of certain pre-reformers from the 19^th century?

1. Watch the following video until minute 2:52, which shows a real-life lesson conducted following the Silent Way. Answer the questions below:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85P7dmPHtso
   1. Why do you think this method is called “The Silent Way”?
   2. What is the purpose of the Word charts and Cuisenaire rods?
   3. What is the role of the student?
   4. What is the role of the teacher?
   5. As a first impression, what do you think of this method? Do you think it is suitable for all students’ levels? Do you think it caters for the development of all the skills?
2. Read pages 222-230 in Sánchez (2009). Complete your answers to the questions from practice activity 1.

1. Watch this video of a real-life class where a teacher is implementing Suggestopedia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g6hyZqrPnY

   Please answer the following questions:

   1. What are the stages of the lesson?
   2. What are the learning objectives and the pedagogical activities and resources used in each stage?
   3. What is the role of the teacher and of the students in each stage?
2. After having watched the video indicated here and in the slideshow corresponding to the theory of this unit, what is your overall opinion about this method (practical implementation, tenets, etc.)?

1. Read this lesson plan following CL:
   (http://members.fortunecity.com/nadabs/communitylearn.html).
   Answer the following questions. Make sure you justify and exemplify your answers:
   1. Which elements from Humanistic Methods in general and from the “Community” feature in particular can you spot here?
   2. What is the role of the teacher in this method as you can see in the lesson plan? What would you say is the common requirement of teachers in the four Humanistic Methods?
   3. Which areas of language are worked upon?
   4. What is the role of the native language in this method? What do you think would happen if the class were not monolingual?
   5. What is the “Human Computer” feature in section 3 (Post-lesson activities)?
2. Would you regularly use CL in your teaching? Why? Why not?

1. Look at this unit from a textbook which follows the N-F Syllabus (O'Neill, R. (1973). Kernel Lessons Plus. A Post-Intermediate Course. Students’ Book. London: Longman).  Answer the following questions:
   1. What are its overall aims for learning?
   2. What is the typology of activities used to achieve such aims; in other words, what are the objectives and strategies of each activity?
   3. Is the “method” underlying this unit completely original and ground-breaking? Or does it resemble other methods? If so, which ones?
2. Read pages 95-107 in Sánchez (2009). Complete your answers to the questions from practice activity 1 when necessary.

1. Examine this unit from one of the earliest CLT course books, which constitutes a landmark in the design of early CLT materials: Swan, M. & Walter, C. (1985). Cambridge English 2.  Student’s Book. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Unit 6A):
   1. Please identify those activities targeted at the presentation of language and those aimed at the practice of language.
   2. Which is the learning mode triggered in the language presentation activities?
   3. Where is the emphasis in each practice activity: on accuracy (forms), on fluency (messages) or on both?
   4. How would you categorise each one of the practice activities according to Littlewood’s (1981) classification (pre-communicative activities and communicative activities)?
   5. Which version do you think that this unit resembles most following Howatt’s (1984) distinction between the weak and the strong version of CLT? Why?
   6. How different is this unit from that of the SLT studied in practice activities 1 and 2 from Unit 4.1.2? Think about learning content, types of activities, etc.
   7. Which unit (the SLT or the CLT one) do you think is more potentially motivating for the students? Why?
2. Analyse the following unit (file) from a current textbook: Oxenden, C., Latham-Koenig, C. & Seligson, P. (2006). New English File Pre-Intermediate. Student’s Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press. File 4A. Perform the same analysis as in practice activity 1.
3. Compare your results from practice activities 1 and 2. Are there significant differences between these two course books, which are more or less similar in the targeted English level (lower-intermediate) and separated by 20 years?

1. Read the following teaching suggestions by Krashen and Terrell (1983: 75-77):
   1. Start with TPR [Total Physical Response] commands. At first the commands are quite simple: “Stand up. Turn around. Raise your right hand.”
   2. Use TPR to teach names of body parts and to introduce numbers and sequence. “Lay your right hand on your head, put both hands on your shoulder, first touch your nose, then stand up and turn to the right three times” and so forth.
   3. Introduce classroom terms and props into commands. “Pick up a pencil and put it under the book, touch a wall, go to the door and knock three times.” Any item which can be brought to the class can be incorporated. “Pick up the record and place it in the tray. Take the green blanket to Larry. Pick up the soap and take it to the woman wearing the green blouse.”
   4. Use names of physical characteristics and clothing to identify members of the class by name. The instructor uses context and the items themselves to make the meanings of the key words clear: hair, long, short, etc. Then a student is described. “What is your name?” (selecting a student). “Class. Look at Barbara. She has long brown hair. Her hair is long and brown. Her hair is not short. It is long.” (Using mime, pointing and context to ensure comprehension.) “What's the name of the student with long brown hair?" (Barbara). Questions such as “What is the name of the woman with me short blond hair?” or “What is the name of the student sitting next to the man with short brown hair and glasses?” are very simple to understand by attending to key words, gestures and context. And they require the students only to remember and produce the name of a fellow student. The same can be done with articles of clothing and colors. “Who is wearing a yellow shirt? Who is wearing a brown dress?”
   5. Use visuals, typically magazine pictures, to introduce new vocabulary and to continue with activities requiring only student names as response. The instructor introduces the pictures to the entire class one at a time focusing usually on one single item or activity in the picture. He may introduce one to five new words while talking about the picture. He then passes the picture to a particular student in the class. The students’ task is to remember the name of the student with a particular picture. For example, “Tom has the picture of the sailboat. Joan has the picture of the family watching television” and so forth. The instructor will ask questions like “Who has the picture with the sailboat? Does Susan or Toro have the picture of the people on the beach?” Again the students need only produce a name in response.
   6. Combine use of pictures with TPR. “Jim, find the picture of the little girl with her dog and give it to the woman with the pink blouse”.
   7. Combine observations about the pictures with commands and conditionals. “If there is a woman in your picture, stand up. If there is something blue in your picture, touch your right shoulder.”
   8. Using several pictures, ask students to point to the picture being described. Picture 1. “There are several people in this picture. One appears to be a father, the other a daughter. What are they doing? Cooking. They are cooking a hamburger.” Picture 2. “There are two men in this picture. They are young. They are boxing.” Picture 3…
2. Answer the following questions about Krashen and Terrell’s previous teaching suggestions:
   1.  Can you notice the influence of previous methods that we have studied in this course (besides the TPR)? In other words, which methods can you identify on the basis of the types of activities proposed?
   2. What is the common characteristic of all the activities proposed in relation to the tenets by Natural Approach?
   3. On the basis of a) and b), what would you say is the original contribution of the Natural Approach in terms of pedagogical activities?

1. Watch the following video about the explanation of TBLT and a related illustration on how to implement it in the FL classroom:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdidE3Dl9sw&feature=related

   Please answer the followind questions:

   a. What are the three stages in the task cycle?

   b. What are the pedgogical purposes of each phase?

   c. Which is the most important phase? Why?

   d. Wha is the actual task that the studentes have to perform? Would you say this is a real-work task or a pedagogical task?

   e. The video exemplifies the first stage of the task cycle. What is its objective in relation to the task being implemented in the class?

   f. Which principles behind CLT can you find in TBLT? According to the teacher´s description and implementation of TBLT, which CLT version do you think it corresponds to: The weak or the strong version? Why?

1. Here you will find an example of a CLL lesson plan for science teaching:

CLIL lesson plan for science teaching [Make sure your download the "worksheet" file from its corresponding link in this website. For the actual text worked upon in the lesson plan, go to the "here" link at the beginning of this website, click on "Introduction to biodiversity" and then on "What threatens our biodiversity?"]. Which learning and teaching principles that you have studied in Unit 4.3.5 can you identify in this lesson?

     2. On the basis of your responses to practice activity 1 and everything that you have studied in this unit, what is your opinion about CLIL?

1. Watch the following video about the structure “Numbered Heads Together”:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8uYS48BIUw&feature=related
   1. What is the pedagogical procedure?
   2. Which CLL principles underlie this structure?
   3. How do you think that this particular structure and the others studied in this unit contribute to the development of communicative competence? (Remember Unit 4.3.2).
   4. Do you think that this structure and the others studied in this unit can be implemented with all sorts of students? (Think about age, level and instructional setting variables)
2. Look at the following procedure of a CLL class (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2011: 189-190). The students in this class are fifth grade ESL students in Alexandria, Virginia, USA. The class is devoted to vocabulary. For each step, please indicate the underlying CLL principle it corresponds to (see slides 8 and 9 of the slideshow of Unit 4.3.6).
   1. The vocabulary lesson will be done in cooperative groups. Each student is to help the other students learn the new vocabulary words.
   2. The students ask which groups they should form. The teacher tells them to stay in the same groups they have been in this week.
   3. The teacher gives the students the criteria for judging how well they have performed the task they have been given. There are consequences for the group and the whole class.
   4. The students are to work on the social skill of encouraging others.
   5. The students appear to be busy working in their groups. There is much talking in the groups.
   6. Students take the test individually.
   7. Students compare and combine scores. The students put their group’s scores on each of their papers.
   8. The group discusses who the target social skill has been practiced. Each student is given a role. The teacher gives feedback on how students did on the target social skill.
3. Compare the teaching advocated in CLL against traditional teaching, that is, G-T and Structurally based Methods, in terms of the following elements:
   1. Learner roles
   2. Teacher roles
   3. Types of activities
   4. Interaction
   5. Teacher-student relationship
   6. Room arrangement
4. After having studied CLL, you will have noticed that it bears great resemblances with CL. Can you pinpoint both similarities and differences between these two approaches?

Here you have the sample concordance used in the lesson based on an ad-hoc ESP corpus included in J. Willis (2011: 57). 

a. Place yourself as a teacher. Examine the sample concordance. How would you exploit this concordance in the ELT   classroom? Revise the procedure indicated by J. Willis in slide 31 of the slideshow of Unit 4.4.1 and try to guess what is involved in the three stages (their definitions are purposefully absent!).

b. How do you think that a key pedagogical resource of the Lexical Approach, “consciousness-raising activities” or “awareness-raising activities”, could be exploited within this procedure?

c. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this procedure for both the teacher and the learner?

1. Categorise each of the following seven activity types into the type of intelligence it likely taps from the list in slide 15 of the slideshow corresponding to this unit. There is one type of intelligence which has not been considered here. Which one is it?
   1. Problem solving and puzzles
   2. Cooperative tasks
   3. Listening to lectures
   4. Mime/Total Physical Response
   5. Playing music/ tapping out the stress pattern in sentences
   6. Doing graphs
   7. Personal journal keeping
2. Imagine you are an EFL teacher. How would you exploit or foster the eight intelligences in your students?

1. In your groups, choose one unit from a contemporary EFL textbook and analyse its activities in terms of:
   1. Overall goal
   2. Specific language objectives
   3. Emphasised skills and language areas
   4. Underlying language, language learning and teaching theories, with reference to cognitive and affective factors
   5. Typology of activities
   6. Roles of students as derived from the activity instructions
2. Once you have performed this analysis, answer the following questions and justify your answers:
   1. Do you think that the sample unit reflects the principles of the Integrative Method?
   2. Or do you think that the textbook merely includes activities related to more than one method?

Re-read Kumaravadivelu's (2003, 2006a, 2006b) ten macrostrategies for language teaching (slide 32 of the slideshow corresponding to this unit and your own classnotes).

1. Analyse each one of the macrostrategies and try to associate them to the relevant teaching methods that we have studied throughout the history of language teaching.
2. Which method can be associated to more macrostrategies?
3. What is your opinion about the practicality of the implementation in the language classroom of a method that complies with these ten macrostrategies? In other words, what are the requirements for learners and teachers?

1. We have finished our description of language teaching methods throughout history. Fill in Table 7 to obtain a summary about the essential characteristics of the main methods from the 19th century onwards. You may want to revise all your notes and practice activities from blocks 3 and 4.
2. Go back to your notes in practice activity 2 from unit 1.1. (Think about your own perspectives or teaching preferences about all such issues. At the end of the course, check whether your issues listed and your own perspectives are completely new or whether they have already been approached before. What can you learn from this simple but revealing task?).

What are your own conclusions, then? Do you agree with Kelly’s (1969) statement that  “Ideas accessible to language teachers have not changed basically in  2000 years” (p. 161)?

1. Read the following quotation from Chapter 6 of the CEFR and answer the questions below:
   There are many ways in which modern languages are currently learnt and taught. For many years the Council of Europe has promoted an approach based on the communicative needs of learners and the use of materials and methods that will enable learners to satisfy these needs and which are appropriate to their characteristics as learners. However […] it is not the function of the Framework to promote one particular language teaching methodology, but instead to present options. A full exchange of information on these options and of experience with them must come from the field. At this stage it is possible only to indicate some of the options derived from existing practice and to ask users of the Framework to fill in gaps from their own knowledge and experience. […] The approach to the methodology of learning and teaching has to be comprehensive, presenting all options in an explicit and transparent way and avoiding advocacy or dogmatism. It has been a fundamental methodological principle of the Council of Europe that the methods to be employed in language learning, teaching and research are those considered to be most effective in reaching the objectives agreed in the light of the needs of the individual learners in their social context.
   CEFR (2001: 142)
   1. What is the official stance of the CEFR in terms of methodology?
   2. Can you spot any subliminal support for a specific method or approach as revealed in the quotation above?
2. Read page 143 in the CEFR from: “In general, how are learners expected to learn a second or foreign language (L2)? Is it in one or more of the following ways?” (https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages) Relate each one of those ways with the relevant methods studied in this course.

Section 6.1. COGNITIVE FACTORS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

1. Complete Table 8. Please note the following:
   1. You have to provide a brief summary for columns 2 and 4 (officially intended objective of the method and types of activities).
   2. For column 3 –emphasised skills– just mention the name of the pertinent skills.
   3. In columns 5, 6 and 7 –fostered type of knowledge, method focus and officially intended objective fully accomplished?– you have to write Yes, No or Partially according to the case.
   4. Watch out: Do not expect 100 per cent clear-cut answers… Since language teaching is not Maths teaching (for the better and for the worse), some responses may reflect a mixture of concepts or a partial presence of concepts. The important thing is that you are able to understand and explain why this is so in each case.
   5. After having completed  Table 8,
      • You will have revised the main language teaching methods from the 19^th century onwards from a pedagogical perspective.
      • You will have learned the emphasis on declarative and/or procedural knowledge by such methods.
      • You will have understood the relationship between cognitive and pedagogical parameters; in other words, how activities in one method reflect the type of knowledge fostered by such a method.
      • By means of the cognitive analysis performed, you will have critically understood the success and failure of these methods in accomplishing their officially intended objectives.

Section 6.2. AFFECTIVE FACTORS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

2. You are going to find out by yourself how the main FLT methods have catered for students' motivation. For that purpose, you are going to apply Sánchez's (1993) scale for measuring the motivational potential of activities and Brown's (2002) checklist of items for techniques to develop students' intrinsic motivation to all the activities of the textbook lessons offered in the practice activities of
   1. unit 3.1 (G-T)
   2. unit 4.1.2 (SLT)
   3. unit 4.3.2 (CLT)
   4. unit 4.3.5 (CLIL),
3. Calculate the motivation coefficient for both Sánchez’s scale and Brown’s checklist in the five lessons.
   NOTES ON PROCEDURE
   1. Although we acknowledge that the following deviates from Sánchez’s original procedure, for the purposes of homogeneization and easiness in the application of both scales, just answer Yes (item is present) or No (item is absent) for each specific item in every single activity.
   2. Compute the number of “Yes” answers and divide them into the overall number of items for both scales (19 in Sánchez and 10 in Brown).
   3. In both scales, the highest coefficient that can be obtained is 1 (19 “yes” answers divided into 19 items in Sánchez and 10 “yes” answers divided into 10 items in Brown)
4. Answer the following questions:
   1. Are there any differences for each method/approach in the results from both coefficients?
   2. On the basis of the analysis of real activities belonging to these approaches and methods, can you distinguish a pattern in the evolution of the treatment of motivational issues in FLT methods?

Section 6.3. CULTURE IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

5. After studying the section on culture from Block 6, can you complement your classnotes from Practice activity 2 of the WRAP-UP ACTIVITIES FOR BLOCKS 3 AND 4? Can you actually describe in more detail how the approaches and methods included there have tackled the issue of culture teachig-if at all?
6. Take any ELT course book (a current one, one you used as a student of English…). Try to detect whether it reflects any of the distinctive features of a European society and its culture as distinguished by the CEFR (2001: 102-103), which you can find in slides 72-76 of the slideshow for Block 6. To what extent are such features present in the textbook? Do you think that overall the textbook fosters sociocultural knowledge and/or intercultural awareness? Why?

Section 6.4. ACTIVITY SEQUENCING IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

7. Revise Brumfit’s (1979) characterisation of traditional and post-communicative activity sequencing patterns.
   1. Which methods from the 19^th century onwards can you identify as leaning more towards traditional teaching and which ones towards what Brumfit calls “post-communicative” teaching?
   2. Which advantages and disadvantages can you spot in the post-communicative model from a) the students’ point of view and b) the teachers’ point of view?
8. Analyse the sequence of activities in the textbook lessons from Unit 4.3.2. Do they follow the traditional PPP model of activity sequencing or its contemporary version? Justify your answer.