TESOL METHODOLOGY

Nguyen Nhat Tuan

Hanoi University

The language classroom

 a language class is an arena of subjective and

intersubjective realities which are worked out, changed
and maintained. And these realities are not trivial
background to the tasks of teaching and learning a
language. They locate and define the new language itself
as if it never existed before, and they continually specify
and mould the activities of teaching and learning.
(Breen, 2001a: 128; original emphasis)

The language classroom

 Interactive: interaction ranges from the ritual and

predictable to the dynamic, unpredictable and diverse.
Differentiated: the classroom is experienced differently
by each participant, and the culture of the classroom
results from the meeting and mixing of these differing
social realities.
Highly normative: individuals conform to classroom
norms and conventions to show they belong.

key features of L2 classroom

 Collective: classes have psychological realities which

result from the juxtaposition of personal learning
experiences and communal teaching-learning activities.
Conservative: classroom groups seek social and
emotional stability perhaps even an equilibrium which
does not necessarily assist learning. The conservative
nature of classrooms makes innovation difficult.

key features of L2 classroom

 Jointly constructed: whether or not the teacher plans a lesson in

advance, the actual working out of the lesson (and the language
within it) is a joint endeavour.
Immediately significant: what is done in the classroom, how
and why are immediately psychologically significant to
individuals, and the individual as a group member. (from
Breen, 2001a: 12935)
Classroom cultures are not seen as fixed and final but are
dynamic and changing. They result from the relationship between
social and psychological processes and between individuals and
the wider group of learners in the classroom.

key features of L2 classroom

 How far do you agree with the idea that teachers teach
values as much by what they do as by what they say, i.e.,
that all classroom actions and activities are potentially
value-laden?
What values inform your teaching? What factors affect
and inform your values? Consider, for example, your
wider institutional, community and national context.

Thinking about the values

 Johnston argues that language teaching and learning is

shot through with values, and that language teaching is a
profoundly value-laden activity (2003: 1).

Values in the ELT

classroom

 Values permeate all aspects of ELT including, for

example, curriculum design and language testing;
decisions about which variety of English might be taught
(i.e., a native or a non-native speaker variety) and about
the use of the learners L1 in the classroom; and the role
of native speaker and non-native speaker teachers within
the ELT profession as a whole.

Values in the ELT

classroom

 Why do you think some people seem to be more

successful language learners than others?
What do you think the relationship might be between
personality and language learning? Do you think an
extrovert might be a more successful learner than an
introvert? Why/why not?
What do we mean when we say a learner is motivated?

The language learner

 Stern (1983) refers to learner factors as he reviews how

factors such as age, aptitude and personality might both
affect classroom practice and raise questions surrounding
level-based learner selection and placement.
Skehan (1989), meanwhile, discusses individual
differences between learners, those background learner
variables that modify the general acquisitional processes,
helping to explain why, how long, how hard, how well,
how proactively, and in what way the learner engages in the
learning process (Drnyei, 2009: 182; original emphasis).

The language learner

 According to popular belief, or, as Cohen (2004: 22) puts

it, anecdote and assumption, children are faster and
more successful language learners than adults; most
people can identify both children who have appeared to
learn a second language quickly and easily and adults
who have struggled with language learning.

Age

 Pronunciation is regularly cited as one area where

learners who begin to acquire an L2 before puberty tend
to be more successful than adult learners (LarsenFreeman, 2001; Ortega, 2009).
Both Brown (2007) and V. Cook (2008) highlight the
superior retention of vocabulary by adults, while Stern
(1983) and Larsen-Freeman (2001) suggest that grammar
acquisition is not necessarily affected by age.
Thus, the existence of a critical period for L2 learning
remains rather uncertain (Ortega, 2009)

Age

 the ways in which younger and older learners learn are

likely to differ.
Adults are able to draw upon cognitive capabilities,
which enable them to learn about and understand
language in more abstract ways than children

Age

 Language aptitude is defined in terms of speed in

language learning (Ranta, 2008: 142), and is a concept
that accepts that everyone can acquire; it is just that
some people do it faster than others (Johnson, 2008: 118;
original emphasis).

Aptitude

 Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) (Carroll, 1990),

defines aptitude in terms of:
phonemic coding ability, the ability to identify sounds
and remember and link them to phonetic symbols.
sensitivity to grammatical structures in a sentence.
the ability to learn inductively, i.e., to infer rules about
language from examples.
the ability to rote learn vocabulary items.

Aptitude

 Larsen-Freeman (2001) lists extroversion/introversion,

self-esteem, anxiety, risk-taking, sensitivity to rejection,
empathy, inhibition and tolerance of ambiguity as those
key traits that are thought to facilitate or inhibit learning.

Personality

 extrovert sociability
(including gregariousness,
people-orientation and a fear
of isolation)
impulsivity (including the
need for excitement, change
and risk-taking)
have an advantage in language
learning as they create learning
opportunities through
interaction and consequently
expose themselves to input
while generating output

Personality

introverts are said to be

quieter and more
introspective
reserved and perhaps even
rather distant, and tend to
plan ahead (Eysenck, 1965, in
Skehan, ibid.)
Ehrman (2008) found that the
logical and precise thinking
that introverted learners may
bring to the language
learning process led to more
successful L2 learning

 Arnold and Brown state that:

teachers should also take into account any cultural norms,
which may make an outsider confuse cultural patterns of
correct behaviour with individual feelings of inhibition or
introversion (1999: 11).

Personality

 Language anxiety, the feeling of tension and

apprehension specifically associated with second
language contexts (Larsen- Freeman, 2001: 17).
Language learners may experience:
Acceptance anxiety. Will I be accepted, liked, wanted?
Orientation anxiety. Will I understand what is going on?
Performance anxiety. Will I be able to do what I have come
to learn? (Heron, 1989: 33 in Arnold and Brown, ibid.),

Anxiety and anxieties

 Larsen-Freeman (2001) points out, anxiety may not fit

easily into a discussion of personality characteristics, it is
an essential element of classroom life and is closely
linked to other aspects of learners personalities

Anxiety and anxieties

 A popular belief is that women and girls females are

better L2 learners than men and boys.
women and girls experience different forms of motivation
and may utilize different learning strategies to men and
boys.
in mixed groups male learners tend to dominate verbally

Gender

 It would seem safe to generalize that both males and

females can be good language learners. The ongoing
challenge . . . for teachers [is] to discover how both their
male and female students may be supported to achieve
maximum success as language learners. (Nyikos, 2008:
80)

Gender