MODULE 2: A BRIEF HISTORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING THEORY

MODULE 2: A BRIEF HISTORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING THEORY



1. How would you summarize the changes in language teaching and learning over the centuries?

Language teaching and learning have had a very interesting history. Since ancient Greece and Rome to modern times, different phases have been stated produced by crucial moments in politics, economy, etc that have affected humankind.

Phase 1:
- Monks in 15th century believed languages were learnt best through reading, copying out and repeating (for religious and academic purposes)
- In 16th people wanted to learn languages for social purposes
- Thinkers found reading and repeating biblical texts was not useful to interact using other languages so they started thinking language teaching should have a grammar and usage components.

Phase 2:
- 19th century schools and universities starting teaching foreign languages. Academics started to investigate debate and improve the methodology to teach foreign languages.

Phase 3:
- After World War I people wanted to learn languages to understand countries better.
- Research started understanding the importance and connection between languages and learning through methods.
- People started to use teaching resources.
- People started to take into account the cultural context when teaching languages.

Phase 4:
- World War II brought deep changes: they found language learning could take place outside the classroom.
- Speaking became a main aspect in teaching languages, focusing on functional language skills.

Phase 5:
- New methods were created to seek fluency.
- Functional uses were central.
- Social, affective factors and cultural context were taken into account in a language class.


Communicative Competence:
- Teaching and learning a language is stated for specific purposes, with particular objectives.
- Real language is the focus of the class. An eclectic approach was introduced.
- The terms “variety” and “diversity” become popular, language teaching and learning are full of methods, resources, environments, etc.
- Technology is used for language learning.

Advances in language learning
- New format of language teaching is developed.

Today
- Authentic language use takes place all the time.
- Culture and context are considered relevant.

The future
- Research and technology continue giving new ideas to improve language teaching and learning.


2. What kinds of factors affected the development of language learning theories over time?

Social, economical and political factors affected the advancement of these theories because when societies had to face destruction or any crisis people changed their ways of thinking, perceptions and attitudes towards surviving, education, etc; in this case towards teaching foreign languages to solve society’s problems.

3. Describe five approaches that have been used to teach languages over the centuries. You do not need to name methods, just general approaches.

1. Direct: it’s not allowed to speak in the mother tongue, lessons begin with dialogues in a modern conversational style, actions and pictures are used to make meaning clear, grammar is learnt inductively, the teacher must be a native speaker.

2. Audio lingual: lessons begin with dialogues, memorization is used, language is a habit formation, grammatical structures are sequenced and rules are taught inductively.

3.Affective-Humanistic: affective factors are taken into account in class, emotions are important and determine learning, that’s why class atmosphere is relevant, when learners feel comfortable they learn easily.

4.Comprehension-Based: it is based on the assumption second or foreign language learning is very similar to first language acquisition. Listening skill plays the most important role because it determines the development of the others. Since listening is the focus, learners should have meaningful and relevant listening materials.

5. Communicative Approach: its objective is to make learners able to communicate, teachers should develop several learners abilities to express their ideas, interaction and social functions are relevant because they lead communication, create opportunity to share or exchange information, opinions, comments, etc.

4. What is the current approach to language learning and teaching? What are some characteristics of the current approach?

Communicative Approach: this one is the current approach because it provides many of the aspects that facilitate language learning. Based on language learning must develop communicative skills, this approach offers lot of tasks to interact, learn from others (when learners work in groups), to incorporate real life situations (that’s why authentic materials and social functions are principal), meaning negotiation is possible because communication is wide and creative.


5. Can you think of examples of languages being taught for “specific purposes”?

When teaching a language through a very particular purpose or field within a particular framework: business, science, mathematics. Teaching content at school, for example, in many schools language teachers teach a particular subject with specific content, language is not the goal is the way to accomplish different skills and knowledge.

6. Which methods appeal most to you, and why?

-Affective-Humanistic: As a teacher I cannot develop a class without considering my students feelings, affective factors are always present and affect the class atmosphere and their learning. I think all teachers should keep in mind they are working with human beings full of emotions in and out of the classrooms. Additionally, this approach gives us a great chance to take advantage of the learners’ emotions because when the lessons have relationship with their feelings their learning is meaningful and therefore it lasts.

-Cognitive approach: As teachers we should give our learners several tools to develop their cognitive skills, we should provide them challenges to prepare them for real life situations they have to face all the time. Adult learners should be responsible for their own learning because they are the ones who better know their learning styles, their habits, attention span, etc. The teacher guides their learning process but the students contribute by making personal improvement, if a learner considers the listening skill is more difficult to develop, that person needs tools to overcome that specific difficulty.

-Communicative Approach: As I mentioned above Communicative Approach provides many aspects that facilitate language learning. It offers lot of tasks to interact, to incorporate real life situations using authentic materials, to use meaning negotiation because communication is wide and creative. I agree with “if you know a language you use it to express what you think and understand what people want to mean” of course there are “rules” and certain conditions to be understood and to be able to comprehend others, but in short it is necessary to apply complete approaches that make communication possible and easy.

7. Provide examples of the older approaches to language teaching that you might use in your own classroom. Explain how they might be useful.

Every approach has contributed with ideas and many ways to develop language learning. No matter their theories, nature or circumstances, all of them have tried to find the best method. What teachers should do is to take the most affective parts of them to generate their own method according to their learners, contexts, etc.

In my case I think all of the older approaches below have something useful, the grammar translation approach is sometimes used because some adult learners need, demand translation; the Direct Approach is helpful because it pressures learners to speak and interact in the target language, actions and pictures are used to make meaning clear, and we love to design materials for them; the Reading approach is useful too because in current classes which take into account the four communicative skills, reading skill plays an important role and learner are aware of its importance to get vocabulary and grammar; the Audio lingual Approach is helpful when learners need to practice an drill vocabulary or pronunciation, sometimes students need to learn by memory dialogues or grammatical structures. In short in order to help our learners reach their own goals teachers should be versatile, creative, practical to use what is available.