What is the deductive approach?
What is the inductive approach?
The deductive approach in teaching means starting with a general rule and then moving to specific examples or application. Example: The teacher tells the class: “The past tense of the verb is often formed by putting -ed at the end of the verb”. Then, they write on the board: “She danced. I walked.” The students then complete exercises.
The inductive approach in teaching means starting with specific examples first. The learners are guided to “discover” the rules by themselves. Example: The teacher writes on the board: “I watched a film yesterday. She walked to school three years ago”. The teacher asks:” What do you notice about the verb?”. The students might say: “All verbs end with -ed”. The teacher confirms this and explains the rule.
What is action research?
Action research is a practical, teacher-led process of investigating and improving classroom teaching. Teachers identify a problem, try out a strategy, observe the results, and reflect to make teaching better.
What is the audiolingual method?
When? During WII
Where? In USA
Why? People had to learn languages quickly for military purposes.
Inductive approach
What? This method is strongly influenced by behaviourism. Language is a process of habit formation (positive reinforcement). L1 should not interfere and contrastive error analysis is used.
How? Use of target language as medium of instruction. Focus on accurate speaking skills. Drilling of words and phrases (e.g. chain drilling, single-slot drilling). Errors need to be corrected immediately by the teacher. Memorisation of dialogues through imitation and repetition.
What is the PPP procedure?
The PPP procedure is part of the Situational Language Teaching method. It is an acronym for :
- Presentation: The teacher usually introduces a grammar item in a real-life situation.
- Practice: The students repeat isolated sentences (drilling, gap-fill). There is a focus on accuracy.
- Production: The learners use the new language in activities, such as role-plays. This practises free use of the new form and accuracy.
Example: 1. The teacher introduces adverbs of frequency with a text about a typical day in their life. “I drink coffee everyday”. “ I always have breakfast”
- The students drill sentence.
- The students go into pairs and they need to talk about what they do ever day.
What is task-based learning?
Who? developed by Jane Willis and Dave Willis
When? in the 1980s.
Why? As an attempt to deal with limitations of PPP model
What? In this approach “task” is defined as a goal-orientated activity in which learners use language to achieve a real outcome. Focus on form occurs at the end of the task (different to PPP model).
How? 1. Pre-task: The teacher introduces the task and highlights useful lexis.
2. Task cycle: Students complete the task in pairs or in small groups. After this, they plan to report about the task to the class. At the end of the task cycle, they report to the class.
3.Language focus: Students analyse specific features of the language and practise this.
For example: 1. Teacher introduces travel-related holiday vocabulary.
2. Leaners go into groups and plan a 5-day holiday with a fixed budget. They need to write down an itinerary. The learners present their ideas.
3. After the presentations, the teacher gives feedback on language use. Potentially the teacher could give feedback on useful expressions for suggestions: “Why don’t we..?/Let’s..”
What is the Lexical approach?
Who? developed by Michael Lewis
When? 1990s
Why? advent of corpus linguistics
What? emphasises that vocabulary should be focus of syllabus and lesson design. This is justified by the frequency of vocabulary items and collocations.
Approach: inductive approach
How? Learners are guided to notice and observe chunks. There is a unity of teaching grammar, lexis and pronunciation. A chunk may be taught as lexical item, phonological unit or grammatical input. There is an increased emphasis on listening, reading and exposing students to examples of spoken language.
Example: Instead of teaching “must” as modal auxiliary verb meaning certainty and possibility, the teacher implementing a lexical approach will draw attention to a series of utterances, e.g. “That must be fun” or “That must have been excisiting”.
What is structural linguistics?
An approach to language that sees it as a system of rules and patterns (structures), focusing on grammar, sentence forms, and sound systems. It influenced methods like the Audiolingual Method, which teaches language through repetition, drills, and habit formation, rather than through meaning or communication.
What is the grammar translation method?
When? 19th century
Why? Latin and Greek were taught taught by translating into L1. When foreign languages were introduced in the curriculum, the same method was used.
Approach: deductive approach
What? The sentence was seen as the single unit of analysis. Focus on written production and accuracy (little or no focus on pronunciation).
How? Sentences and words are translated from L2 to L1 (and vice versa). Use of learners’ L1 as medium of instruction.
What are humanistic approaches?
Humanistic approaches focus on the learner’s feelings, needs, and whole personality, not just language skills. They emphasize a supportive, positive environment where learners are motivated, confident, and involved in their own learning. These include:
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Silent Way
Community Language Learning (CLL)
Suggestopedia
What is notional-functional approach?
A syllabus design approach proposed by David Wilkins in the 1970s that organizes language learning around “notions” (concepts) and “functions” (communicative purposes), rather than traditional grammar structures. Notional-Functional Approach is a tool or syllabus type within the broader framework of Communicative Language Teaching.
e.g., greeting, requesting, apologizing, inviting, complaining.
The goal is to structure the syllabus based on real-life communicative needs.
For example, instead of teaching “present simple tense,”, the lesson would be based on How to introduce yourself or How to talk about routines.
What is “suggestopedia”?
Suggestopedia developed by Georgi Lozanov. Learners learn best when they are comfortable and mental barriers are reduced. Usage of music, visuals and drama to “suggest” to the brain that learning is stress free.
Example: Students enter a classroom with classical music playing. The teacher reads a dialogue with expression and rhythm. The students follow the reading with a text in their L1 and the target language. Teacher and students decode the text together.
What are C-R (consciousness raising) and noticing activities?
Consciousness-Raising (C-R) activities help learners focus attention on how grammar rules work, e.g., identifying when to use the present perfect.
Noticing, emphasized by Schmidt (1990), helps learners spot language forms in context, e.g., underlining past tense verbs while reading a story.
What is dogme ELT?
Who? Scott Thornbury
When? 2000
Where? in an article
Why? Thornbury felt that there were too many materials in ELT which are lesson-driven and not informed by the needs of the learners.
What? Learning is jointly constructed out of the talk. Lessons are based entirely on what students and teachers bring to the lesson.
How? No materials are used and planning only happens retrospectively.
Example: The teacher asks “How was the weekend?”. One student responds with: “I go to the countryside”. The teacher notes that the simple past was not used. They ask “What verb form needs to be used here?”. The lesson naturally becomes about past tense forms.
What is an “approach”?
Refers to theories about the nature of language and nature of language learning. It informs classroom practice.
What is a “method”?
A method is the application of an approach in practice. It includes various procedures and techniques.
It informs how the syllabus is organised, what activities are being used (e.g. drills, role-plays), the roles teachers and students should adopt and what materials are being used.
What is a “procedure”?
A procedure is a sequence of techniques.
The procedure of a listening lesson could look like this.
- pre-listening: Teacher activate schemata, discusses a familiar topic, e.g. What did you do during the weekend?
- Listening: Students listen to a recording about two speakers and what they did during the weekend. They listen for gist and detail.
- After listening: Students have to go in pairs and discuss how they feel about the speakers’ weekend plans.
What is a “technique”?
A technique is a specific action that the teacher does to facilitate learning.
What is “delayed correction”? What is the rationale behind it?
When the teacher allows learners to speak without interrupting them to correct inaccuracies in language, and focuses on a selection of the errors made after the students have finished the speaking activity.
What is “back-chaining”?
when the teacher models a difficult word, phrase or sentence by starting with the last main stress, which the learners repeat, and then gradually builds up the word or phrase by working backwards the beginning.
For example, “unbelievable”. The teacher might start with “able”, then “believe”, then “un”.
What is the “direct method”?
When? late 19th century
Why? Reaction to the limitation of grammar translation
What? Focus on accuracy and sentence as object of study (like grammar translation). A focus on spoken production. The term comes from that the meaning is directly conveyed through visuals.
How? Emphasis on using target language. Grammar is taught through visuals and objects. Teacher demonstrates but does not explain. No L1 is spoken.
What is “situational language teaching”?
language teaching and its syllables which focusses on what students need in order to function in social situations,
e.g. going to the doctors
What is communicative language teaching?
Who? David Wilkins
When? 1970s
Where? in Europe
Why? to focus on meaning and how these systems are used in real communication
What? focuses on communication as primary goal. Teaches functions of languages an what is appropriate in a given social context.
How? Students are presented with and exposed to “authentic” language. Learners complete communicate activities in small groups or pairs. Errors are tolerated as long as there is no communication breakdown.
Example: Learners do a role play where one learner is the waiter and the other learner is the customer.
What is linguistic competence vs communicative competence?
Linguistics competence refers to a person’s knowledge of the language system specifically the grammar, syntax, phonology, and vocabulary of a language.
Communicative competence refers to the ability to use language appropriately in real-life situations.
What is the difference between teaching usage and teaching use?
teaching usage (focus on form, teaching correct structure, e.g. grammar and syntax)
teaching use (focus on meaning, means teaching how to use language appropriately in real-life situations. It’s about meaning, intention, and context.)
