English Language Teaching - CLT - Assessment Answer

English Language Teaching Assignment

Assignment Task

Topic A:

Many teachers draw on traditional teaching methods and practices in their TEFL classes rather than opting for CLT.

Describe and discuss current contexts which justify appropriate use of traditional practices, then suggest ways in which aspects of CLT can be integrated into these contexts.

OR

Topic B:

‘If language teachers do not … have some understanding of educational and applied subject theory, they will be mere technicians.’

Discuss this statement with reference to at least one approachand one methodin language teaching.

Introduction

Truth can be doubted as liar but it cannot be doubted that a good language teacher has not the depth of the knowledge about subject and the flame of teaching expertise is ignited only by the knowledge of techniques. If the burning words of Shakespeare are put forward, then it can be said that teaching some students by following some instructions about teaching is comparatively easy than the following of own teaching. The language teaching is not that easy and if it were then the chapels would become the churches. Learning English language is about possessing second soul and so the responsibility of a good language teacher is to turn a student a magnet of knowledge and curiosity about the language. The compass- a good language teacher, then activates the magnets. This is where the responsibility of a good language teacher lies. The use of theories and methods help the teachers to have a thorough idea about not only the linguistic but also about the learning styles. The philosophy and psychology that lies hidden in the teaching methods, is put into use side by side with techniques. This helps the teachers to overcome the barriers of technicalities and makes them teachers who sow the seeds of knowledge according to the capacity and interests of the students.

Various methods are there like direct method, learning of community language and other methods that can ignite the flame of language teaching of a teacher and make the students have a thorough idea about the places, where they have to put their spotlight on. The successful teaching style of a good language teacher can drive the language learners in the intervention of exact meaning. The good language teacher allows the students to give emphasis on the meaning of the terms of a new language and not to focus on using some catchy phrases and hasty words. The use of methods and theories in language teaching helps a language teacher to understand the behaviour of the students and this helps the teacher to get the right track of teaching to the students. For example, Audio-lingualism is a language teaching method, which is applied by a teacher to understand the psychological behaviour of the students, which allows the teacher to make the students guided on the right track. The teachers who follow the theories and methods see the language teaching as habit formation process and a process to bring changes in students’ behaviour. If the teachers applies all the techniques in teaching of language then in most of the cases, the teachers are having no differences with the technicians and they cannot meet the goal of teaching language. A language teacher gets the ultimate success when the psychology and interests of the students are clear in addition to the concept of operate communicative competence.

Teachers’ educational understanding on life’s blackboard:

The increasing demand of learning English has been noticed since the ages, mostly during the colonial times. This widely used language had colonised several regional languages across the world and dominated several national along with regional languages until the last century. According to Bartell et al. (2013), the practice of teaching and learning English is a widely celebrated sector, which has already become one of the major key factors to flourish the carrier as well. In most of the cases, the native English teachers no longer dominate this entire sector, as several new techniques have been emerged in the recent past. The present scenario of English education is mostly dominated by the common linguistic practices, which can easily be recognised around the world. As opined by McDonald, Kazemi & Kavanagh (2013), the linguistic classes based on this particular subject has associated itself more with the carrier orientations and migrant studies. The language is globally acknowledged and mostly practiced keeping its usefulness with the career growth in mind. Thus, the linguistic orientation of this language is always preferred to be taught and learned from the ground of common interests.

As stated by Scarino (2013), the applied linguistic form of English language teaching programmes is usually aimed at the students with less or no teaching experiences. These students are in a way to improve their common understanding of linguistics, as grossly applied to the English language teaching. Teachers from any part of the world or any language background can adopt the ability to teach students with this language. However, it requires professional understanding on this language along with considering the applied forms.

As elaborated by McDonald, Kazemi & Kavanagh (2013), the key issues related to the learning English Language programmes in order to be able to teach them correctly to the students, must follow several instructions. Besides being able to adopt all the academic contexts, teachers are also required to lead the students to reach professional goals. Optional modules are often found useful to allow the teachers to specialise in various curriculum designs, which have prior efficiency towards conveying the proper knowledge on the language. This feature of linguistic study often aims at making the teachers to be able to teach their students diverse forms of language learning. Curriculum designs are mostly followed by the material evaluation, which is used to target towards focusing on the contemporary technologies. As discussed by Stürmer, Könings & Seidel (2013), assimilating the teaching tools with the current advancement of technologies lead the learning process towards several professional goals. It is often targeted towards make the students be able to cope with other subjects also, which are learnt through this language particularly.

However, in the argumentative words of Kleickmann et al. (2013), the entire teaching process of English language must follow the fundamental form of studies. The fundamental English teaching process aims at allowing the students to learn the basic grammars of the language along with the knowledge of proper sentence structure. It also enhances the stock of vocabulary for the students, which are useful in their non-language studies as well. Fundamental language teaching is always recommended to the teachers in order to make the students comfortable enough to cope with their other subjective papers as well. An aspiring teacher in English language must increase their stock of vocabularies not only to improve their sentence construction, as it must also be associated with approaching the subject from diverse perspectives.

For teachers with proper education goals are recommended to encourage the reflective learning strategies. As opined by Jenkins & Leung (2013), the reflective strategies in teaching goals of English language must be associated with the real context. Adopting the reflective strategies in English teaching often influence the aspiring teachers to become learners themselves. As per the opinion of Richards & Schmidt (2013), the aspiring teachers are suggested to learn any foreign language at least for one semester. Learning the foreign language can be helpful for them to approach the applied study for any language. Consulting with the experience teachers is considered as the most useful factor during learning the teaching process. It is recommended to every single aspiring teacher, as it has no alternative in the larger perspective of learning the teaching goals.

According to Richards & Schmidt (2013), taking classes and consulting the experienced teachers are always recommended for the process of betterment in teaching ability. Consulting the experienced teachers in private, who are associated with this profession for a long while can help the learners to get better understanding of the realistic approaches. It also enhances the ability of real world applications in teaching profession. Seeking companies from the experienced teachers may lead the learners to enhance their understand ability on the professional lives and make them educated about the widely accepted professional criteria as well.

However, in the contradictory words of Braine (2014), some teachers are always there to help the learners detecting the loopholes of the profession. Studying or analyzing them can help them broadly to understand, which things need be done and which are not. Many of them are filled up with flaws and reflect several negative approaches about the professionalism in study. In most of the cases, it is seen that teachers are learnt in a wrong way. Aspiring teachers are recommended to study them too in order to address the misunderstandings in the previous studies. Learning the best ideas on professional teaching class classroom observations are always recommended. Classroom observation practices help the learners to understand the difficult situations often witnessed by the teachers. Studying them closely and witnessing the methods they use to apply to handle the situations are always useful for the learners.

Learners are recommended to ground their theoretical studies in reality. It helps them to understand the study more from the core. As monitored by Breen (2014), theoretical studies often discourage practical experiences, as they make the learners deeply engaged with the books only. However, it is never expected from the learners, who intend to be professional teachers in future. Teachers without any knowledge on applied subject theories are recognised as mere technicians. Aspiring teaching profession insists the learners to pass through different models and theories related to the same. Thus, the entire process of learning teaching abilities is recommended to lead through several micro-techniques within a peer-based environment.

Micro-techniques in teacher training process are widely practiced across the world in present times. According to Sewell (2013), micro-techniques provide the aspiring teachers an opportunity to enhance their teaching skills by indulging in various simple tasks. The entire process leads them to acquire several techniques of teaching, which are in context with timely needs. Micro-techniques in teaching have been proven successful for both the novices and seniors. Micro-techniques in teaching help the entire educational sector to promote real-time teaching modules. It also brings major improvements in acquiring experiences, which are needful in timely form of education. Micro-techniques are highly recommended for the learners, who aspire to be teachers of English language. It influences the personal level experiences of the learners, which they are subjected to use in making solutions.

According to Dingemanse (2012), Structural Approach is one of the widely celebrated methods in teacher training process. This method refers to acknowledge the language as a complex of grammatical rules. These grammatical rules are needed to be learnt one at a time format and that too in a set order. In this practice, the serial of the selected words are prioritised, while constructing a sentence. It also refers to follow a time-based approach to learn one thing in a definite period. For example, the verb ‘to be’ must be practiced for a certain while before start practicing the present continuous tense, where ‘to be’ is used as an auxiliary verb. Time chronology influence this approach broadly, thus, it is referred as the Structural Approach in worldwide learning methods. As opined by Dingemanse (2012), Structural Approaches are highly accepted and appreciated in English Language learning procedure. This approach is priory designed for the linguistic studies, thus, it has become useful in the teacher training process of English language.

Suggestopedia is one of the most applied theories in teacher learning process, mostly with the linguistic backdrops. It has earned huge amount of goodwill from the present teachers and proven most timely for the learners. It indicates at acquiring knowledge from diverse sources and that too with a free mind. This theory never discourages the learners to acquire knowledge from different sources. It also acknowledges their various attributes and activities they posses in their personal lives. Suggestopedia always encourages the learners to gain social information broadly from different aspects and align them with the teaching ability adaptation process. However, in the argumentative words of Tagliamonte & Baayen (2012), the theory of Suggestopedia often is declined if the learners are unable to adopt knowledge from various sources. This theory can be implied successfully, when the learner acquire the knowledge as a receptive and filled up with no mental blocks. It helps knowledge to be flourished freely and with no prejudices.

The Lexical Syllabus is one of the various approaches in teacher learning process aiming towards computer-based knowledge. This approach has significantly focused on the technological based knowledge and identified the most common issues in modern era professionalism of teacherhood. According to Richards & Rodgers (2014), The Lexical Syllabus refers to the knowledge to be implicated on the technological foundation and associated widely with the new age education style. It has been observed as the most useful approach in teacher learning module, thus, has earned enormous reputation in this sector across the world. In terms of learning linguistic study, The Lexical Syllabus has been found with diverse acknowledgement in teaching profession. It has earned various scale of success in growing up online teaching behaviours. The Lexical Syllabus offers the aspiring teachers to acquire their teaching ability goals even from the distant zones. It goes for the present teachers as well, who are often suggested to share their knowledge with the learners through online websites or other interactive mediums. As opined by Cortes (2013), The Lexical Syllabus aims at identifying the most common words in a language structure along with their diverse uses. This approach also enhances these words in widely to the order of their frequency. Great emphasis is often placed on the uses of authentic words.

The use of Audio-lingual method helps the language teacher to give emphasis on the attainment of the patterns as well as structure of the language that is used in the daily conversation. This method helps the teacher to take away the focus of the teacher from the clear understandings of the vocabulary. The teacher by following this pattern use drills for teaching the sentence construction and structure of the language used in daily conversation.

The appliance of the method helps the teacher to focus on the vocabulary but that in context. Cortes (2013) thinks that the word meanings and stock of words are given less focus in this method and they are taught only to use in the context, which is used in enhancing daily communication pattern. Conversely, Kidd (2012) argued that if a teacher teaches vocabulary only to use in the contexts, the dialogues will be sharpened but the students will not be able to develop their writing style. If the teacher does not have through idea about the subject, the teacher will use only techniques and methods of teaching but will be unable to align the use of methods with the subject. While using the other methods, the teachers give emphasis on the grammar of English first, but this method allows the teacher to give less emphasis on the grammar. Kidd (2012) believes that the use of hasty words and proper use of grammar cannot make a person able to ask for a cup of tea, whereas the proper understanding and use of patterns of language can. On the contrary, Schlegel, Rudelson & Peter (2012) argues that this method helps the teacher to give emphasis on the English pronunciation but use of grammar is not to be neglected wholly and to be rectified while communicating in English language. By the use of this Audio-lingual method by language teachers, the students are able to learn from audio-visual medium, which holds their interest to attend language classes.

This method helps the teacher in many cases to be a student and then the teacher learns and judges own teaching style and the self-assessment sharpen the teaching style of the language teacher. Kidd (2012) believes that this method is helpful for the language learners as their right responses are highlighted and supported positively. On the contrary, Lee, Quinn & Valdés (2013) argued that this method helps the learners to for the testing method it applies for the students until they give correct responses. The teachers, who have no depth of knowledge over the subject, cannot match the method with the language teaching. While using audio visual medium, the content selection for catching the attention of the learners depend on the understanding of the subject by the teachers. The teachers have to be expert in language using and they are needed to have a thorough idea over a subject to evaluate the responses of the learners and to understand the places where development is needed. Liu & Cai (2013) thinks that the technicians follow the previously used techniques and applied them with full consciousness but the thing that differentiate the teachers from the technicians is the touch of innovation with the appliance of the methods and a clear understanding of learning theories and knowledge of subject allows the teacher to reach that goal. Zhiwei (2014) thinks that the use of methods cannot ever sharpen the communicative ability by shaping the use of proper language, but proper knowledge of subject has to mingled with the use of any method.

Zahorik’s theory of language teaching put forward three categories of teaching. The use of Science-Research Conceptions category of language teaching helps the teacher to go through a process of teaching that is supported by the investigation as well as experimentation. The language teacher with the help of a tested model follows the learning principles of language learning. This approach allows the language teacher to have a study on the motivation, memory of the students, which are highly important for a teacher to teach and students to learn. The theory says that the learning depends upon some elements, which shape the psychological behaviour of the language learners. As discussed by Lu, Ghoshal & Renals (2014), the language teacher is needed to analyse and recognise stimulus within a student and to evaluate their responses to teach language with a synchronised manner. By following this method, the teachers ignite a sense of encouragement within the learners to use their active responses again in future. The use of techniques cannot make a teacher able to understand the behaviour of the students and to identify the places where the learners need development in language learning. By following the theory, the teacher gives focus on the memorisation of the phrases and vocabularies that are needed to be shaped for the daily conversation. Virvou et al. (2015) stated that according to the theory of Zahorik, previous research is the root over which the tree of language teaching develops as the problems are previously identified in the research, which enable the teacher to recognise the weak points of the teaching where the teacher can focus on. For example, Silent Way is an approach by which the teachers are able to set the minds of the language learners for using new and complex words in the communicative language.

Another category that is discussed in the theory is ‘Theory-Philosophy Conception’ and the appliance of the category helps the language teacher to understand which conception of teaching is ethically right. Munday (2016) thinks that the use of the method needs the appropriate user or teacher who has the power to think in an innovative and systematic way. The language teacher while supporting the learners with proper evidence based teaching can carry out the logical argumentation. For example, The Silent-Way is a method based on the theory that allows the teacher to give emphasis on the beliefs of how the adult students can learn languages. By the appliance of this method, a teacher gives emphasis on the classroom environment and creates opportunities for the learners to flourish their knowledge and use their stock of words. Munday (2016) thinks that a teacher who does not give emphasis on the use of theories by keeping in line with use of approaches in learning, failed to satisfy the demands of the learners. Conversely, as argued by Ehsan & Faili (2013), the language teacher understands role of education for the inhabitants in the society by the use of this theory and can shape the teaching style in accordance with the demands of the learners to communicate with the society. The approaches that are value-based help the teacher to understand to go with curriculum development. The last category that is used in the theory is Aircraft Conception. Zahorick’s theory discusses about the personality of the teachers that leaves impact on the teaching style. Personalisation leaves a positive impact on the language teaching and invention enhances the essence of the language teaching. As monitored by Golebiewska & Jones (2014) believes that if a teacher has good personality and good knowledge over subjects, then this will ignite the light of the decision-making capacity of the language teachers. The situation is analysed by the teachers and thus the decision-making capacity of the teachers have directly effect on the situation analysis of the teachers. By using this method, the language teachers are able to understand and analyse the classroom environment and thus select teaching methods that are appropriate for adjusting the students with the environment and ignite their capacity to use various vocabularies in dialogues.

A classical method helps the teacher to repeat the traditional method of teaching while teaching the language learners the use of correct grammar. By using this approach, the language teacher gives emphasis on the translation of different texts. Shabani & Tazik (2014) stated that in this case, the vocabulary is used to translate and give an original look to the translated work. In this method, lessons are given importance in target language. This approach helps the teacher to put light on the vocabulary, which is used for daily conversation. Zhiwei (2014) thinks that the use of visual mediums helps the learners to give attention to the use of new vocabularies and the use of visual medium helps the learners to memorise the vocabularies. On the contrary, as argued by Shabani & Tazik (2014) argue that this approach helps the learners to shape the pronunciation of English language. The focus is given on the pronunciation and the learners are busy in catching the accuracy of it, while the teacher uses this method for teaching language. The Grammar-translation method helps the teacher to shape oral communication of the students that is flawless and for that purpose; it gives emphasis on the use of correct grammar in daily dialogues. The approaches and theories are needed to be used in teaching but the essence can be enhanced if there is touch of innovation.

Conclusion

Studying language education may refer to a general school subject; however, it remains always needful in educational sector. Learning linguistic is widely recommended for all the students, in terms of both receiving and providing teaching. Teaching profession is always recommended with a continuous process of study, thus, it is always implied with high priority. Teacher training programmes are objectified with diverse attitudes, most of which are accomplished through various external knowledge sources, such as books, journals, CDs, DVDs and academic research papers. Several methods of teaching languages have been discussed in this study, which are aimed at training the aspiring linguistic teachers. The most common behaviours in teaching language are divided into two significant practices followed by relative obscurity and direct approaches. Three major principal views have been focused in this study, which are Structural, Functional and Interactive respectively.

Language pedagogy is widely related with the language teaching, thus, it always influences the aspiring teachers. Aspiring teachers have been recognised as the learners in the study, who are meant to develop their education goals for the future students. Applied education have highlighted deeply in the study, as the finest solution to reach the teaching goals. With the progress of the study various methods, theories and approaches have been discussed in this study with needful elaboration. Henceforth, they have been analysed critically to address their efficiencies in greater aspect. The methods, theories and approaches, discussed in this study are Microteaching, Structural Approach, Suggestopedia, Lexical Syllabus, Audio-lingual method and Zahorick’s theory. These theories, approaches and methods have been implied with the current study and discussed the efficiencies of them in relation to teacher training.

The study has focused on the application models more than the theories, as they had been prioritised with more intense in world educational sectors. All the methods and approaches, discussed in this study have been adopted with successful implementation. The applied modules for this research have intended the entire procedure to be passed through the timely nature and its availability in terms of modern age of education.