PRINCIPLES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING

(7 Principles)
1. Language Teaching And Formation Of Behaviour (Educational
Aim):
- Language teaching should contribute to the formation of all-round persons.
- Students can master the language materials, and at the same time they can train
themselves to become good citizens.
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- What is the content of this principles?
 Language teaching should contribute the method in school. The students study
different subjects (geography, history, chemistry, math…) and you teach them the
language that is English. You are the E teacher, you should do what the other
teachers do in the different subjects in the school to train your students to become
an all-round person.
 An all-round person means a person with the good knowledge and good behaviour.
 EX: After the lesson, the students should help protect the environment, the teacher
should teach the students give their school green. The students should have
responsibility to respect old people or to help their mom to do the housework at
home.
- What does the teacher do to apply this principle?
 The language teacher should organize the classroom in such a way that Students
can master the language materials, and at the same time they can train themselves
to become good citizens.
 Language materials consist of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar.
- How can the students train themselves to become good citizens? (How do you apply
this principle?)
 The teacher teaches the students to become good citizens through the lesson, the
examples, the teacher’s behaviour.
 EX: + Through the examples: You shouldn’t draw on the desk/wall.
+ Through the teacher’s behaviour: The teacher should be a good example for
the students to follow. (Dạy hs viết chữ đẹp trong khi thây viết chữ lên bảng như gà
bới => not a good example.)
2. Authentic Language Standards:
- A language teacher should teach a language as it is, not as it ought to be.
- The forms used by educated native speakers.
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- What is the “authentic language standards”? Give an example?
  Authentic language is the language used by native speakers (real situations), not
the language used in books.
 EX: “It’s me!” => về mặt grammar là sai, nhưng native speaker nói “It’s me!”
nên khi dạy ta phải dạy “It’s me!” chứ không dạy “It’s I!”. Những ngôi khác phải
là “It’s she/he!” mới đúng => “It’s I!” just occur in the grammar books, not in
daily life.
- What does “The forms used by educated native speakers” mean?
 It means the language used on TV, on the radio, at school and at University.
3. Language Teaching And Culture:
- Language is closely connected with people’s habits, customs, needs and aspirations.
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- Why should we apply this principle in our teaching?
 Language and culture can not be separated because the language of the country
reflex the culture of the people who speaks that language.
 Language is closely connected with people’s habits, customs, needs and
aspirations. So when you teach English, you teach the culture of the peoplewho
speak English. At the same time, you have to encourage your students to use the
language to talk about their own culture.
- Why do we have to encourage your students to use the language to talk about their
own culture?
 Doing that, the students will not forget their root.
4. Language Teaching And Visual Aids:
As a language teacher, you should use the visual aids because of these reasons:
- Creating meaningful situations.
- Introducing students cultural aspects.
- Helping students to develop language skills and retain these skills longer.
5. Students’ Participation In Classroom Activities:
- Most of the learning time for practicing
- 85% for practice
- 15% for explaination and commentary.
- Teacher needs to design tasks for students of different levels in their class
=> all students maybe involved in classroom activities.
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- How many kinds of students are there in your class?
 3 kinds: fast, average and slow students.
- What does the teacher do?
 In your lesson plan, you should have some questions for fast, average and slow
students.
- How can you upgrade slow students to average students and average students to fast
students?
  The students at different levels work in pairs or in groups and they can help each
other.
 The students at slower levels have to repeat the correct answers of the students at
higher levels.
6. Distribution And Presentation Of The Language Materials:
- Language materials of high frequency are introduced first and are repeated at higher
levels through out the whole process of teaching and learning.
- Using old words to introduce new structures; using old structures to introduce new
words.
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- Language materials consist of pronunciations, vocabulary and grammar.
- Language materials of high frequency means the vocabulary, pronunciation and
grammar which are used in daily life.
- We don’t teach students dialects. When they master L2 very well, they read a lot of
books, stories in L2, they will know the dailects
- EX:
+ L1 (Vietnamese): dạy phát âm theo giọng người HN
+ L2 (English): dạy singular noun trước => plural noun.
7. Use Of The Mother Tongue In Language Teaching:
- Positive transfer (the similarity of the 2 languages) making learning easier.
- Negative transfer or interference (the differency of the 2 languages): causing
difficulties in learning the TL.
- Advantages of using mother tongue in language teaching: give clearer and fuller
explanation so that the problem or difficulty might be solved in a short time, leaving
more time for practice.
- Should not be overused.
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- Positive transfer: because of the similarity here, the learners will study L2 easily. And
when your students learn L3, they will be influenced by L1 and L2.
- Negative transfer: the difficulty here will cause the difficulties for students learn the
TL.
- What are the advantages of using mother tongue?
 The advantages of using mother tongue: to save the time, to explain the acstract
words, to help the students to overcome the difficulty, the interference, to
understand the words or the lesson (language) or the instruction thoroughly.
- Why we shouldn’t be overused?
 If you overused the mother tongue, it means you use the GTM and this method is
out of date. You will form bad habit for your students. When the students see a
thing, they will think of the mother tongue first and after that they will translate it
into the target language.
8. Language materials are presented in meaningful sentences and
taught through L, S, W, R:
- L, S, R, W => ALM
- CLT ko theo trình tự trên vì mục tiêu của CLT là dạy cho hs language competence. =>
bắt đầu bài học bằng R, L, S, W hoặc R, S, W, L.
9. Teaching aids:
a. Benefits of using teaching aids:
- Varyring (changing) the pace (nhịp độ) of the lesson.
- Speaking to each other more easily and naturally.
- Allowing teachers to talk less ans the students to talk more.
- Helping teachers to create situations outside the classroom, to introduce students to
unfamiliar cultural aspects, to change situations quickly as well as easily in a drill.
b. Kinds of teaching aids: for watching and for listening.
- Boards (board presentation)
- Realia: real object
- Pictures, drawing, charts,…
- Flashcard, word cards
- The teacher
 Helping the students to understand the language materials quickly and remember
them longer.
 Helping to teach the four language skills
 Allowing teachers to intergrate the 4 skills constructively.
 Creating a comfortable atmosphere and stimulating to language learning.
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- Kinds of teaching aids for both watching and listening.
- These kinds of teaching aids here is for watching.
- Films or videos => for listening.
- The teacher is a valuable kinds of teaching aids because the teacher is a combination
of both listening and watching.
+ watching: the teacher uses handwriting, the body language, the gesture to help the
student understands the lesson.
+ listening: the teachers’ voice is the teaching aids for listening.
c. Teacher should consider the following points:
- The purpose of the lesson in relation to syllabus.
- The specific learning objectives of the lesson.
- The characteristics of the class members (age, educational background, learning
purposes,…).
- Communication problems (hesitation caused by shyness. Anxiety, or difficulties in
relationship within the group)
- The design of the lesson
- Available resources.

MAJOR TEACHING PROCEDURES

(PPP; ESA; P.W.P; T.B.I)
1. TASK – BASED INSTRUCTION
T.B.I
- Task – based has been considered as a major focal point of language teaching practice
worldwide.
- As a profession has continued to emphasize classroom interaction, learner – centered
teaching, authenticity, and viewing the learner’s own experiences as important
contributors to learning, task – based instruction draws the attention of teachers and
learners to tasks in the classroom.
+ Origin of the appearance of task – based: learner – centered teaching, authenticity,
task – based instruction
+ This is the charateristic of CLT
+ “draws the attention of teachers and learners” means the learners will study the
language through the task.
 TBI is a variation (biến thể) of CLT.
 PPP is a variation of ALM.
- Language has to be acquires as a result of some deeper experience than the
concentration on a grammar point.
+ “a result of some deeper experience” means you use the language you’re studying
to solve the problem.
+ “concentration on a grammar point”. EX: You’re very good at grammar but it
doesn’t mean that you can use the language in everyday activities, in your life.
+ The ALM focuses on sentence patterns but when the students drill them through
mechanical drills, the can’t use the language to communicate when they go out of
the class. This is the weakness of ALM and the TBI will help the learners overcome
this weakness.
- There’s no need for the teaching of grammar point. Instead the students are simply
asked to perform communicative activities in which they have to use the foreign
language. The more they do this, the better they become at using the language.
(important)
- A task is an activity whih requires learners to use the language, with emphasis on
meaning, to attain an objective. (Skehan, 2003)
 + It should be a complicative activity => emphasis on meaning, to attain an
objective. => language competence.
- A task is an activity in which meaning is primary, there is a problem to solve and
relationship to real world activities, with an objective that can be assessed in terms of
an outcome.
+ This is the definition of the task and this is more specific.
+ When the students do the tasks it means they solve the problems.
- David Nunan (2004) and others is careful to distinguish between:
+ Target tasks: use of the language in the world beyond the classroom.
+ Pedagogical tasks: tasks that occur in the classroom.
+ EX: a map – oriented problem – solving task might involve teacher initiated
schema setting comments, a view of appropriate grammar and vocabulary useful
for the task, pair or group work to propose and discuss solutions, and a whole –
class reporting procedure.
 The students will do pedagogical tasks first and after that they will carry out the
target tasks (free practice)
 What will the teacher do iin the pedagogical task? => In the pedagogical task, the
teacher will give the students some vocabulary, useful expression, the structures
that the students will use in giving direction. And then the teacher shows them a
map, give them the sample. When the students get familiar with the structures and
the words, you’ll give them the situation with free practice.
 EX: You will teach the students about the reading text: “The kinds of energy”
In the pedagogical task: the teacher will introduce the topic of the lesson, teach the
students some vocabulary, useful expression, the structures and then the students
will read the passage about “The kinds of energy”. After that they understand what
the passage is about and then they can do different task for comprehension such as
true/false, answer the questions... When the students can answer your questions, it
means they understand the reading. And then you will move to the target task. This
is post – reading. You’ll ask your students, give them the situation and they will
discuss in pairs or in groups complicative activities.
- All of these are “communicative” and part of the nature of CLT, but the task itself is
designed to equip learners with the communicative language.
- The main interaction in the classroom took place between the teacher and the students.
The class performed pre – tasks which involved questions and vocabulary, checking
and then they answered the questiond with which they solve the problems that were
set. (Prabhu, 1979)

2. PRESENTATION – PRACTICE – PRODUCTION (ALM)

P.P.P
A. Presentation stage:
- The teacher will explain the new language material.
+ warm up
+ presenting the topic / theme of the lesson
+ teaching vocabulary and grammar (If the lesson has new grammar point, you
have to present it in the presentation)
B. Practice stage:
- Controlled practice: the teacher ask the students to practice the dialogue in groups or
in pairs. Students learn by heart the dialogue and after that they say again.
+ In the ALM, you will carry out the mechanical drills.
+ The purpose of Repitition drill is to help the learners to know and use the
language in the first stage. (chưa thành thạo)
- Half – controlled practice: the teacher gives the students open dialogue, students will
practice in pairs/groups and complete the dialogue.
C. Production stage:
- Free practice: The teacher gives the students the situation. The students will use the
sample that they practice in the open dialogue to make their own dialogue (rebuild the
conversation according to their personal preference.)
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- In writing:
+ Guided writing: You rearrange the lecture, the sentences, rearrange the sentences
in the paragraph.
+ Half – guided writing: The teacher gives the students vocabulary, keywords and
then they will write a complete sentence.
+ Free writing: the teacher gives a topic and the students will write a complete
lecture or a paragraph.

3. PRE – WHILE – POST (CLT)

P.W.P
1. Pre- :
- The teacher talks more because in this stage, the teacher present the linguistic forms
+ Carrying out the warm – up activities
+ Introducing the topic of the lesson
+ Teaching vocabulary, grammar.
- The students just listen and do what the teacher ask them to do.
2. While- :
 - Teacher talking time and students talking time are equal because controlled practice
and half – controlled practice are here.
- The teacher also guides the practice, the activities.
3. Post- :
- The teacher is a facilitator. The teacher just corrects the students mistakes, helps the
students overcome some difficulty in practicing
 That’s why the teacher talks less.
- The students work in pairs/groups. They have free practice.
 That’s why the students talk more.

4. ENGAGE – STUDY – ACTIVE

E.S.A
1. Engage:
- The teacher shows the students a picture or video or mimes various animals.
- The students say which animals they see and whether or not they like these animals
and why.
- The teacher can then expand by asking which of these animals they have ever seen and
where, or if, these animals exist in the students’ country…
2. Study:
- The teacher shows the students a particular example and elicits sentences from the
students by asking “what can it do?”
- The students respond with example sentences such as “It can/can’t fly/swim/run very
quickly.”
- The teacher make sure the sentences are using the correct grammar and helps correct
any animals.
- A brief explanation of the structure of can/can’t sentences may follow as well as a bit
of work on the pronunciation of can’t.
3. Active:
- Students work in groups and design their own “super animal”.
- Then they make a presentation to the class about the animal they have created and
about what it can/can’t do.

THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

T.P.R
- Asher, who developed the method, focuses on two characteristics of first language
acquisition.
- The first of these is that the child gets a vast amount of comprehensible input before
beginning to speak. Young children comprehend language which is far in excess of
their ability to produce.
- Secondly, there is a lot of physical physical manipulation and action language
accompanying early input.
EX: “Throw the ball to daddy.”; “Put your arm through here.”…
- This action language, encouraging physical manipulation, is couched in the imperative.
- Asher derived three keys principles from his beliefs about the nature of first language
acquisition.
1. We should stress comprehension rather than production at the beginning levels of
second language instruction with no demands on the learners to generate the target
structure themselves
2. We should obey the “here and now” principle.
3. We should provide input to the learners by getting them to carry out commands.
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- Which level is TPR suitable for?
 It’s suitable for children in the primary school.
 In this method, the students don’t have to speak anything, they just do what the
teacher asks them to do, they just carry out the action.