Teaching methods

Click on the teaching method in slideshow mode to skip to the

corresponding slide:

Total Physical Response

Communicative Language Teaching
Content-Based Instruction a.k.a Content and Language
Integrated Learning
Task-Based Language Teaching
Aesthetic Approach
References:
Langer, J.A (1994). A response-based approach to reading literature. National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning, Report
Series 6.7. SUNY, Albany. Accessed from http://cela.albany.edu/reports/langer/langerresponsebased.p.d.f.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University
Press.
Richards, J.C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Rosenblatt, L. M. (1978). The reader, the text, the poem: The transactional theory of the literary work. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University
Press.

This section prepared and presented by: Leong Qing Yi (S-HM0045/17)

Total Physical Response (TPR)

• Emphasizes students’ development of basic communication

skills through receiving meaningful exposure to target
language (comprehensible input)
• Teacher uses language that is just in advance of students’
current level of proficiency (i+1)
• Creating a low affective filter is necessary to reduce learner’s
anxiety
• Students follow directions uttered by instructor (without
native language translation)

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in

language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. A sample TPR lesson
The teacher gives a The teacher introduces new
command in the target commands after she is
language and performs satisfied that the first six
the action with the have been mastered.
The teacher writes the
students.
new commands on the
The teacher changes the board.
The students say nothing. order of the commands.

A few weeks later, a

When the students make an
The teacher gives the student who has not
error, the teacher repeats
commands quite quickly. the command while acting spoken gives new
it out. commands.
The teacher sits down and
issues commands to the The teacher gives the A student says ‘Shake
volunteers. students commands they *hand with your
have not heard before. neighbor’.
The teacher directs
students other than the The teacher says ‘Jump to
volunteers. the desk.’ Everyone laughs.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Pay
attention
Principles of Total Physical Response as there
will be a
quiz later!

1. Meaning in the target language is often conveyed through actions,

memory is activated through learner response.
2. The students’ understanding of the target language should be
developed before speaking.
3. Students can initially learn one part of the language rapidly by
moving their bodies.
4. The imperative is a powerful linguistic device through which teacher
directs students’ behavior.
5. Students can learn through observing actions as well as by
performing the actions themselves.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Principles of Total Physical Response

6. Students should feel successful. Feelings of success and low anxiety
facilitate learning.
7. Students should not be made to memorize fixed routines.
8. Correction should be carried out in an unobtrusive manner.
9. Students must develop flexibility in understanding novel combinations of
target language chunks.
10. Language learning is more effective when it is fun.
11. Spoken language should emphasized over written language.
12. Students will speak when they are ready.
13. Students are expected to make errors when they first begin speaking.
Principles of Total Physical Response

Quiz
1. Find a partner
2. Look at the Handout on Teaching Methods (section A on
total physical response).
3. Match the principles of TPR to the events that happen in a
TPR classroom
Demonstration of TPR:

Watch how a teacher conducts a lesson using

Total Physical Response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mk6RRf4k
Ks

End of TPR: Click to go back to main index

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

• Introduced in the 1970s

• Influenced by sociolinguistics
• Replaced traditional grammar-based language teaching
• Takes into consideration the purposes a language user
has for learning the target language
• Goal: to teach communicative competence
Can you differentiate between grammatical
competence and communicative competence?
Instructions: Choose the statements that refer to communicative competence
A) Know how to maintain
communication through communication
strategies despite limitations in one’s
language knowledge
B) Know about the building blocks of
sentences (e.g. parts of speech, tenses,
phrases, clauses, sentence patterns,
etc.)
C) Know how to use language for a
range of different purposes and
functions
D) Ability to produce sentences in a
language
E) Can produce and understand
ANSWERS (click here)
different types of texts (e.g. narratives,
reports, interviews, conversations)
F) Know how to vary use of language
according to setting and participants
(e.g. when to use informal or formal
language)
A sample CLT activity ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyoCLO0bLww )
The teacher asks The teacher
students to sit in groups demonstrates some of
The teacher tells the of three and tell each the sample questions
students about an other an exciting story that students can use.
exciting story. for approximately 2
minutes.
The students sit in
At the end, the pairs facing each other
The teacher asks each
teacher tells the and interrogate each
person to choose one
students that she was of the most exciting
other.
lying. stories and pretend
that that story At the end of the
happened to them.
The teacher asks the activity, the teacher
students if they are asks the students to
good at lying. The other person has to state whether or not
ask questions in their their partner was
partner is lying. lying.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Pay
Principles of Communicative Language attention

Teaching as there
will be a
quiz later!
1. Use of authentic language in a real context
2. Able to figure out the speaker’s or writer’s intentions as part of
being communicatively competent
3. Target language as a vehicle for classroom communication
4. Simulating real language use through a variety of linguistic forms,
emphasizing the process of communication
5. Students must learn about cohesion and coherence
6. Language games in small groups which simulate a purpose of
exchange and allow learners to have immediate feedback
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Principles of Communicative Language

Teaching
7. Students can express opinions and ideas
8. Errors are tolerated and are seen as outcomes of the development
of communication skills
9. One of the teacher’s major roles is to establish situations which
promote communication
10. Communicative interaction encourages cooperative relationships
among students
11. Social context is essential in giving meaning to utterances
12. Learning to use language forms appropriately
Principles of Communicative Language
Teaching
13. Teacher acts as facilitator and advisor during activities
14. The grammar and vocabulary learned follow from the function,
situation context and role of interlocutors.

Quiz
1. Find a partner
2. Look at the Handout on Teaching Methods (section B on Communicative
Language Teaching).
3. Match the principles of CLT to the events that happen in a CLT classroom
 Major changes in language teaching due to CLT paradigm shift
(Jacobs and Farrell, 2001; as cited in Richards, 2006).

1) Learner
8) Teachers as autonomy 2) Social nature
co-learners of learning

7) Alternative Major 3) Curricular

assessment integration
changes

6) Thinking skills 4) Focus on

5) Diversity of meaning
learners
Can you differentiate between grammatical
competence and communicative competence?
ANSWERS (correct options highlighted in green)
A) Know how to maintain
communication through communication
strategies despite limitations in one’s
language knowledge
B) Know about the building blocks of
sentences (e.g. parts of speech, tenses,
phrases, clauses, sentence patterns,
etc.)
C) Know how to use language for a
range of different purposes and
functions
D) Ability to produce sentences in a
language
Return to previous slide
E) Can produce and understand
different types of texts (e.g. narratives,
reports, interviews, conversations)
F) Know how to vary use of language
according to setting and participants
(e.g. when to use informal or formal
language)
Demonstration of CLT:

Watch how a teacher conducts a lesson using

Communicative Language Teaching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRT-
rsKxn4

End of CLT: Click to go back to main index

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Content-Based Instruction (CBI)

• Falls under the ‘strong’ version of the Communicative Approach,
together with task-based language teaching
• The ‘strong’ version asserts that language is acquired through
communication
• In CBI, the decisions about content are made first, and other
decisions about the grammar, skills, functions, etc. are made
later.
• For example, the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English,
where students learn the language related to the content.
• Language thus becomes the medium for learning content
(Mohan, 1986, as cited in Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2011).
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. A sample CBI lesson
Teacher uses a dictogloss.
Teacher shows students a Students listen to the teacher
globe and asks them what read a text on Australia
Teacher explains twice. They then reconstruct
they know about it. what they have listened to
latitude and longitude
Students give their based on memory.
answers enthusiastically
and demonstrates how
Students compare drafts in
and teacher records them to locate cities using pairs and work together to
on the blackboard. the present passive construct a draft that is as
verb pattern (e.g. are close to the original as
Teacher supplies students possible.
with vocabulary when located, are called, is
they are struggling to used). Teacher discusses the
organization of the text (e.g.
explain a concept. general opening sentence,
Teacher reads out a list of Students are given specific examples etc.)
vocabulary related to coordinates and they Students are given a
globes. description of Australia and a
come to the front of graphic organizer as
Teacher plays a video on the class to find the city homework. They have to
globes and students fill in on the globe. read the description and
the vocabulary in a label important cities and
rational cloze exercise. details in the graphic
organizer.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Pay
attention
Principles of Content-Based Instruction as there
will be a
quiz later!
1. Both content and language are targets for learning
2. Teaching should be built on students’ previous experience
3. Teacher scaffolds linguistic content and helps learners say what they
want to say
4. When learners perceive the relevance of their language use, they
are motivated to learn.
5. Language is learned most effectively when it is used as a medium to
convey content of interest to students
6. Vocabulary is easier to acquire when there are contextual clues to
help convey meaning.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Principles of Content-Based Instruction

7. When working with authentic subject matter, students need
language support. The teacher may provide examples, use
comprehension checks, etc.
8. Learners work with meaningful, cognitively demanding language
and content within the context of authentic material and tasks.
9. It is important for students to learn the discourse organization of
academic texts
10. Graphic organizers help students develop the skills they need to
learn academic content.
Principles of Content-Based Instruction

Quiz
1. Find a partner
2. Look at the Handout on Teaching Methods (section C on
Content-based instruction).
3. Match the principles of CBI to the events that happen in a
CBI classroom
Richards, J.C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching
Today. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Issues in implementing CBI

1) Can content provide a

sufficient basis for the
development of language use?

Issues
3) Will 2) Do language
learners be assessed teachers have the necessary
according to content subject-matter expertise to
knowledge, language use, or teach specialized content
both? areas?
Demonstration of CBI:

Watch how a teacher conducts a lesson using

Content-Based Instruction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMkHCEU1
Fwg

End of CBI: Click to go back to main index

Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT)

• Language learning will result from creating the right kinds of
interactional processes in the classroom, which are specially
designed instructional tasks
• Grammar and other dimensions of communicative
competence can be developed as a by-product of engaging
learners in interactive tasks
• Involves usage of wide variety of linguistic forms instead of a
particular function or form
• Question: Can you define what is a ‘task’ in task-based
language teaching?
Richards, J.C. (2006). Communicative Language Teaching Today. New
York: Cambridge University Press.

Characteristics of a task

It is something that learners do or It has an outcome which is not simply linked

carry out using their existing to learning language, though language
language resources. acquisition may occur as the learner carries
out the task.

TASK
In the case of tasks involving two or more
learners, it calls upon the learners’ use of It involves a focus on meaning.
communication strategies and interactional
skills.
Types of tasks in TBLT (Prabhu, 1987 as cited in Larsen-Freeman and Anderson, 2011)

1) Information-gap: exchange
of information among
participants in order to
complete a task

Tasks
3) Reasoning-gap: students 2) Opinion-gap: students
derive new information by express personal
inferring it from information preferences, feelings or
that they have been given attitudes to complete a task
Other examples of tasks (as cited in Larsen-
Freeman and Anderson, 2011).
• Structure-based communicative task (Riggenbach, Samuda, and
Wisniewska, 2007).
Students make inferences about the identity of a person using modal verbs /
adverbs of probability

• Communicative tasks to raise students’ consciousness about specific

linguistic items (Ellis, 2009).
Students trace a path on a map using directions from a teacher. They receive
comprehensible input involving imperatives, prepositions of location and
direction and names of buildings.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. A sample TBLT lesson
The teacher asks, ‘What
about Saturday? Do we Students make errors
have school on and teacher notes them.
Saturday?’ Students’ schedules are
Teacher tells class that marked for content.
they are going to The students reply,
complete a timetable. ‘Weekend’. Teacher Students are asked to
responds, ‘Yes. Saturday design a way to survey
Teacher asks students to is on the weekend. other students about
help him fill in a class Saturday’s a weekend their favorite and least
schedule (whole-class
day’. favorite subjects.
interaction).
Teacher randomly asks Teacher talks about the Students report in the
several students to label schedule. next class.
time periods and days. Students do a jigsaw task In their reports, students
Teacher asks students if in groups. They are each use language they have
an answer is right. given some information been working on.
and have to share the Teacher prepares a new
information they have to task based on the errors
complete a class noted earlier.
schedule.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Pay
attention
Principles of Task-Based Language Teaching as there
will be a
quiz later!
1. Class activities have a perceived purpose and clear outcome.
2. A pre-task helps students see the logic involved in what they are
asked to do. Also allows the language necessary to complete the
task to appear.
3. The teacher breaks down the activity into smaller steps so that the
activity is just above the level of less proficient learners.
4. Teacher seeks ways of knowing how involved students are in the
process.
5. Teacher switches communication strategies (e.g. Wh-question to
yes/no question).
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Anderson, M. (2011). Techniques and principles in
language teaching (3rd ed.). Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press.

Principles of Task-Based Language Teaching

7. Teacher provides good models of the target language.
8. Students can interact during group work.
9. Teacher should not interrupt students when they are focusing on
meaning.
10. Students should receive feedback on the level of success in
completing the task.
11. Students have input into the design and the way that they carry out
the task.
12. Public presentations encourage students to work on accuracy and
organization.
Principles of Task-Based Language Teaching

Quiz
1. Find a partner
2. Look at the Handout on Teaching Methods (section D on
task-based language teaching).
3. Match the principles of TBLT to the events that happen in
a TBLT classroom
Demonstration of TBLT:

Watch how a teacher conducts a lesson using

Task-Based Language Teaching:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59XMhMO
0FMU

End of TBLT: Click to go back to main index

Aesthetic approach

• Rosenblatt (1978) – transactional theory and efferent reading

v.s. aesthetic reading
• Aesthetic reading is an active process with an inner-oriented
focus derived from readers and their personal moment-to-
moment transactions with a particular piece of literature.
• Readers bring their lives into the classroom and the literary
text
• Engrossing and challenging literature is appropriately selected
for them
Some general guidelines for using Aesthetic
Approach in the literary classroom (Langer, 1994)
• Keep students’ understandings at the centre of focus and always
begin with their initial impressions
• Teacher instruction involves scaffolding students’ ideas, guiding them
in ways to listen to each other, discuss and think
• Encourage wonderings and hunches. Teachers should ask questions to
tap students’ knowledge
• Encourage students to develop their own well-form interpretations
and gain vision from others
• Question: What do you think would be a good activity in a literature
class that would follow the Aesthetic Approach?

End of Aesthetic Approach: Click to go back to main index