Нова українська школа: методика навчання англійської мови у 3-4 класах закладів загальної середньої освіти на засадах компетентнісного підходу - Крістіна Карпюк 2020

4.2. Ways of teaching English and their characteristics
4. English Teachers and Their Methods

There is a huge variety of methods applied by teachers in their job. The study, analysis and description of different methods and approaches applied in teaching different subjects, including a foreign language, is Methodology. An approach in language teaching is the level of the assumptions of the theoretical ideas and beliefs about what a language is and how it is taught, whereas a method is the level at which that theory is put into practice.

English teaching, in particular, has come a long way in recent years and today there are many different methods applied by teachers to help their students know and use this language well.

Back in the Soviet Union times, the dominating way of teaching English was the grammar-translation method which involved learning grammar rules by heart and understanding the information through translation. However, it did not include any speaking activities which meant students had difficulties in applying English in actual life. All of this changed when the Soviet Republics became independent countries and their peoples started travelling around more, discovering what the outside world was like and, eventually, feeling the need in using foreign languages such as English in real life and not just only on paper. As a consequence, the educational institutions of these countries became more interested in the communicative method of teaching foreign languages. Nowadays, in Ukraine particularly, the educational programme involves teaching speaking which encourages many teachers to include some social activities in their lessons. Albeit, different educators have different opinions about this which is why their methods vary and may be more or less ’social’. Some of them still prefer the grammar-translation method while others (usually the younger generation) are interested in their students’ ability to communicate orally in a foreign language. There is also a rather big number of teachers who use more than one method and may even mix them up to some degree. For example, their lessons may include speaking activities as well as translating texts. Students often learn new words with the help of translation but are then expected to use them in their conversations in that foreign language.

Apart from the grammar-translation and the communicative teaching methods, there are a lot of other ways to teach English. However, it is important to understand the characteristics of each teaching method, before making decisions which one of them to use and whether it is a good idea to combine them. For those reasons, this chapter will cover and describe some more teaching methods and not only the ones discussed above.

The Grammar-Translation Method - teaching and learning a foreign language through a detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by applying this information in translating sentences and texts from the target language into the mother tongue or vice versa. The goal is to be able to read and understand the data in the foreign language as well as to benefit from the intellectual development and the mental discipline that come as a result of studying this language.

Other characteristics:

✵ reading and writing are the main focus, whereas little or no attention is paid to listening and speaking;

✵ vocabulary is selected mainly from the texts that have been read and words are shown with their translation and are learnt with the help of bilingual word lists, dictionaries and through memorisation;

✵ grammar is taught in a deductive way with the instructions being given in the students’ first language (rule explanation - exercise practice) and with the special emphasis on accuracy.

The Direct Method - a more natural way of teaching and learning a foreign language through intensive oral communication between the teacher and the students. In accordance with it, grammar should be taught inductively and all instructions should be presented orally in the target language. As for the vocabulary selection, most of the words and sentences should be the ones which people use in their everyday speech.

Other characteristics:

✵ concrete lexis is taught and learnt visually through demonstration (using different objects and pictures), whereas abstract words are taught with the help of idea association;

✵ speaking as well as listening comprehensions are both included in the teaching and learning processes;

✵ special emphasis is put not only on grammar but also on correct pronunciation.

The Audio-Lingual Method - a way of foreign language teaching that suggests to describe the grammatical patters of the target language and then have them repeated by the students. Grammatical structures should be shown in sentences as examples of their usage. This interesting method is connected to the behaviourist theories of learning. According to them, "... Learning is the result of habit-formation, where performing the correct response to a stimulus means that a reward is given» (Harmer, 2012: 49). This «reward» becomes automatic when is repeated on a regular basis. In other words, this method is based on a lot of listening and drilling. Its levels of popularity, however, have gotten low with time, since educators realised that students can be creative and make their own sentences, using those grammatical structures and the necessary words. But, drilling is still seen as a useful technique in language teaching, particularly with the low-level pupils.

Other characteristics:

✵ with memorising the grammatical patterns and drilling, students are less likely to make mistakes;

✵ language skills are better learnt if the target language items are first shown in oral form and then in written form;

✵ analogy gives a better foundation for language learning than analysis: rules are not explained until the pupils have not practised the grammatical structures in different contexts;

✵ vocabulary items should be learned in a natural context, not in isolation.

The PPP Method - teaching learners by Presentation, Practice and Production. In other words, the teacher presents the material in a situational context and explains as well as demonstrates the meaning and form of the new words/patterns. The students practise them in different sentences and then make sentences about themselves, using the target language. This method is especially suitable for teaching students with a low language level.

Other characteristics:

✵ students are alert and have their full attention on the teacher during the presentation part;

✵ before practice, the teacher checks the pupils’ understanding of the new material;

✵ students use the new language in speaking with their teacher as well as with each other;

✵ in the end, learners produce the target material in their own context about themselves which develops their autonomy.

Task-Based Teaching - a method in foreign language teaching where the emphasis is more on the task than on the language. In fact, the task itself leads to language analysis. The sequence of this method is as follows - pre-task (students are shown the new topic and are told what the task will be), task cycle (students gather the necessary language and data, plan the task and then produce the answer to it in oral or written form), language focus (students do the analysis of the used language and improve/correct it, if necessary).

Other characteristics:

✵ unlike the PPP Method, learners are more free of language control, since in all three stages they use all of their language resources instead of practising only the selected language items;

✵ a natural context is created by students making their own personalised statements that are relevant to them;

✵ this method seems rather enjoyable for many pupils because it is more challenging, involves a lot of communication and gives them more choices in language usage.

The Total Physical Response Method - a humanistic way of teaching and learning a second language by using actual physical movements. It is also connected to tracing because according to this method, the more "... a memory connection is traced, the better the memory association will be and more likely it will be recalled» (Richards and Rodgers, 2014: 277). The teacher presents the target material with body movement and then gives commands to the pupils to repeat it. After learning the material well, the pupils give commands to each other and respond to them.

Other characteristics:

✵ this way of foreign language teaching is useful according to the opinion that abilities involving comprehension come before productive language skills;

✵ until the comprehension skills are established, speaking should be delayed;

✵ skills developed through listening transmit to other skills;

✵ teaching should put more emphasis on meaning than on form as well as lower the students’ stress level.

The Silent Way - another humanistic method of teaching a foreign language where the educator talks as less as possible, since the students should create and discover the language themselves, rather than simply memorise it. The teacher stays mostly silent and may use various mimics and gestures so that the learners can produce as □ much language as they can.

Other characteristics:

✵ the Silent Way has its stages, beginning with simple pronunciation practice and then leading to vocabulary and grammar practice;

✵ this method involves some modelling by the teacher, accurate repetition, guided movement and communication when students are at the high level; thus, these features connect it to some other teaching methods, such as audio-lingualism, the PPP and the communicative method.

The Communicative Method - a way of second language teaching with the focus on the target language as a means of communication. ’Communication’ itself means an exchange of information between people orally or in a written form. In order for it to be genuine, the data that is being discussed should be new to the recipient(s). What is interesting about this method is that «...it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language, combining these into a more fully communicative view» (Littlewood, 2010: 1). The reason for this is the fact that one linguistic form can express more than one function, just as one communicative function can be expressed by more than one linguistic form. The main goal of this method is to develop the students’ communicative competence - the ability to use their social skills intuitively.

Other characteristics:

✵ the main function of any language is to provide interaction and communication, thus, many interactive activities and groupwork/pairwork should be included in the lesson;

✵ the categories of the functional and communicative meaning are the main units of a language, not its grammar and structure;

✵ since language means communication, the teacher’s goal is to develop their students’ communicative competence in this language (the knowledge and practice of using it for a range of various purposes), not to mainly inform them about its theoretical part.

With such a big number of language teaching methods, it is obviously hard to make a choice. Since educators are all people, their methods express their personality to some degree. Consequently, we need to question ourselves what a language is and what its main functions and purposes are in our opinion. According to our answers, we should choose the appropriate method(s). Another element which can help us in our choice is the national syllabus which includes the results and goals that are needed to be achieved in the end of each term, year, level.

SUMMARY

There is a great number of teaching methods today and this may confuse some teachers which one of them to use. When making our choices, we need to ask ourselves: what result do we want to see in the end? Everything depends on what our goal is in teaching English and, therefore, we need to use the appropriate method in order to achieve it. Some educators may use a whole variety of methods. However, as a rule, there will always be one which will dominate over others.