The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

Assignment: Methodological Approaches

Students’ names: Marlon Javier Argueta Granados, Alexander Martin Becerra

Contreras, and Michele Schwertner

Group: fp_tefl_2017-06

Date: August 20th, 2017

The Advantages and Disadvantages of

Using Personal Charts and Tables in
Speaking Activities

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

Index

1. Questioning some statements from the text ……………………………………. 3

2. Criticizing the approach ………………………………………………... ………... 4
3. Discussing the advantages of the approach …………………………………….. 5
Conclusions ……………………………………………………………………….... 6
References …………………………………………………………………………. 8
Appendices ………………..………………………………………………………. 10
Appendix 1.1 ………………………………………………………………………. 10

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

1. Questioning some statements in the text

As stated in the text, which can be found in Appendix 1.1, charts and tables are
used to provide comprehensible input for speaking activities and can be used at
various levels. Although the complexity of responses teachers expect learners to
produce may vary in consonance with the level they are in, charts and tables equip
them with comprehensive input in the same manner across levels. Thus, the British
Council in the article Great Idea: Substitution tables states that
[they are] a very useful scaffolding resource which extends the speaking or

writing skills of EAL learners and can be used as a reinforcement of newly

acquired language… tables provide models for learners to practise target

language and support the development of specific grammatical features within

the context of the curriculum. They are motivating and generate a sense of

achievement. (2016)

Likewise, the text provided also suggests charts and tables can generate “lively
discussions”.
Even though it has commonly been assumed that charts and tables can lead to
interesting discussions, they cannot really be described as “lively” since their focus is
usually mostly on form, i.e., on grammar points such as practicing the use of the 3 rd
person singular in the Present Simple. These discussions help learners “become fluent
in speech habits” and “acquire a knowledge of syntax” (George, 1965) in lieu of helping
them practice the target language more freely and “carry out communicative acts of
various kinds” (Widdowson, 1990). In order to make them “livelier”, teachers could ask
learners to
(a) come up with relevant questions for their classmates, which would also give
them the opportunity to practice on question formation;
(b) provide personal information so as to make it really purposeful;
(c) elaborate somewhat complex responses even at very basic levels with their
teachers’ guidance in case they need it;
(d) and add further information and/or ask follow-up questions to keep the
conversation going (e.g., if learners are supposed to ask the question “Are you
Mexican?”, they can be told not only to provide a short answer such as “No, I’m not.”,
but to also mention their own nationality).
Therefore, the activity would be more meaningful and memorable as a whole.

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

It is evident from the reading that this sort of activity may be used by different
teachers in several different methodological and pedagogical contexts, depending on
their personal view of language and of language learning as well as their objectives.
For instance, this very activity could either be found in a Communicative Language
Teaching (CLT) or in a Natural Approach lesson. Hence, the following two sections will
further exploit these aspects.

2. Criticizing the approach

Unlike other methods and approaches, the underlying principles of
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are
1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.

3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural

features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as

exemplified in discourse. (Richards & Rodgers, 1986: 71)

That is to say that language is viewed as a communicative event which becomes the
main focus of language learning. Therefore, classroom activities should not only be
meaningful, but also involve real communication (Richards, 2006: 02). Moreover, these
activities should be designed to make learners ”achieve purposeful outcomes by
means of language” and “to be tasks for problem solving” (Widdowson, 1990: 119).
Consequently, activities must reflect the real world. Thus, the use of authentic
materials is advocated since learners “should be exposed to language that is actually
used by native speakers, and should be encouraged to develop strategies for
understanding this language”, pair and group work is encouraged as “language
learning is [also] seen as a social process of meaning construction”, and
communicative activities must “identify the learner in a specific role of language use
(for example as tourists, students, customer - waiter…)” in “detailed scenarios”, where
learners find themselves in a “simulation or role playing, or problem solving”
(Arzamendi, Ball, and Gassó in Methodological Approaches).
Performing speaking activities which have personal charts and tables as a
source of input does not offer learners the opportunity to produce the right amount of
comprehensible output (Swain, 1985) for learners learn how to communicate in the
target language fluently by communicating in really meaningful activities and/or tasks.

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

Additionally, learners should focus on the activity and/or task itself, not on language,
i.e., they will only acquire the target language while engaging with meaning and using
specific language to accomplish a task (Prabhu, 1983).
Undoubtedly, learners assume “a more positive [and active] role” in CLT
since “learning is not now seen as conformity to the conditions of transmission
controlled by the teacher but as a self-generating process by the learners themselves”
(Widdowson, 1990). In speaking activities like the ones shown in Appendix 1.1,
learners are not able to play this role for the activity is somehow controlled by teachers
and language itself, i.e., there is a clear focus on a grammar pattern which is using the
Present Simple to talk about daily routines. Also, as learners have worked together in
order to complete the chart/table, most information about their classmates has been
shared already. Hence, there is no point in carrying out the speaking activity as
learners will neither solve a problem nor build meaning.
Ultimately, learners may not really benefit from working on these speaking
activities for they are not required to negotiate meaning or to interact meaningfully.
According to Richards (2006), “people learn a language best when using it to do things
rather than through studying how language works and practicing rules”, which is not
perceived in these speaking activities.

3. Discussing the advantages of the approach

It is a widely held view that it is somehow hard for teachers to find the most
adequate and/or appropriate teaching method or approach. Despite all the resources
teachers may come across, their view of the language and of language teaching as
well as their objectives will ultimately affect their teaching practice, especially the way
they carry out activities, such as speaking activities which have personal charts and
tables as a source of input, in class since this is how a method is realized and can be
observed (Richards & Rodgers, 1986: 16).
As it has been mentioned before, personal charts and tables provide
comprehensible input for speaking activities, such as the one seen in the text provided,
i.e., they may serve as scaffolding which “refers to the steps taken to reduce the
degrees of freedom in carrying out some task so that the child can concentrate on the
difficult skill she is in the process of acquiring” (Bruner, 1978: 19). Furthermore,
Krashen and Terrell (1983: 32) affirm that “in order for acquirers to progress to the next
stage in the acquisition of the target language, they need to understand input language
that includes a structure that is part of the next stage”, that is, learners must have some

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

previous knowledge of grammar rules so as to succeed in performing this specific

activity.
Moreover, Thind on his blog post Methods of Language Teaching suggests
learners internalize sentence patterns as well as other grammar structures while
working on such tables and eventually, speak the target language correctly. Likewise,
George (1965) states learners can get acquainted with a particular sentence pattern
and/or grammar aspect and memorize it easily with the help of mechanical drills, e.g.,
asking and answering questions based on information in a chart/table. Therefore,
charts and tables not only ensure that learners can speak the target language in
grammatically correct sentences, but also provide them with opportunities for
meaningful communication, according to the British Council in the article Great Idea:
Substitution tables.
Obviously, this step-by-step linear approach bears a similarity to the Natural
Approach for the reason that this very activity “provides comprehensive input and a
classroom environment that fosters comprehension of input, minimises learner anxiety
and maximises learner self-confidence” (Arzamendi, Ball, and Gassó in Methodological
Approaches). Filling in a chart together with information about themselves will make
learners feel at ease, will encourage them to produce more language, and will instill
them with a sense of achievement.
In the light of evidence, this approach may help students learn English as an
additional language as learners practice the target language in meaningful activities
which focus on one particular item at a time and lead them to a better understanding of
the language and its system.

Conclusions
Personal charts and tables clearly help learners make the most out of specific
speaking activities, perform them more effectively, and speak the target language more
accurately due to the fact that they offer students comprehensible input as well as a
scaffold. Though it is true that these activities may be meaningful, they do not involve
real communication and the language learners may produce may not be as natural and
fluent as it should be. In addition, despite being exposed to the target language, these
speaking activities do not represent challenging tasks for problem solving and for
negotiation of meaning. Under those circumstances, teachers who view language as
interaction and as action should find a way to connect the use of charts and tables with
a more meaningful experience of the language, i.e., they should try to have learners fill
in these charts/tables while interacting with their peers. Otherwise, the main purpose of

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Personal Charts and Tables in Speaking Activities - MA

these activities will be on form and learners will end up viewing language as a system
and will only master elements of this system rather than learning how to communicate
effectively, appropriately, accurately, and fluently.

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References

Arzamendi, J., Ball, P., and Gassó, E. Methodological Approaches. FUNIBER.

Bruner, J. S. (1978). The role of dialogue in language acquisition. In A. Sinclair, R., J.

Jarvelle, and W. J.M. Levelt (eds.). The Child's Concept of Language. New York:
Springer-Verlag.

George, H. V. 1965. The Substitution Table. ELT Journal 20, 1: 46-48. Retrieved from
https://academic.oup.com/eltj/article-abstract/XX/1/41/459400/The-Substitution-Table.

Great Idea: Substitution tables. Retrieved from

https://eal.britishcouncil.org/teachers/great-ideas-substitution-tables.

Krashen, S. & Terrell, T. (1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the
Classroom. Oxford: Pergamon.

Prabhu, N. S. (1983). Procedural Syllabuses. Paper presented at the RELC Seminar,

Singapore.

Richards, J. C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. New York:

Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input

and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass, & C. Madden (Eds.), Input
in Second Language Acquisition (pp. 165-179). Rowley, Mass: Newbury House.

Thind, R. S. Methods of Language Teaching. Retrieved from

http://blogs.siliconindia.com/Englishlanguage/Academics/METHODS-OF-LANGUAGE-
TEACHING-bid-AScPZ4T899373963.html.

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Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Aspects of Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University

Press.

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Appendices

Appendix 1.1

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