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Academia Oposiciones Profesorado Secundaria TOPIC 13 Language Teaching Theories in the 20 th Century. The Current Approach For over a century, language educators have attempted to solve the problems of language teaching by focusing attention almost exclusively on teaching method. Although the question of how to teach languages has been debated even longer than that - for over twenty-five centuries - theory development as a debate on teaching methods has evolved particularly over the last hundred years. 1- FOCUS, METHOD, TECHNIQUE AND CURRICULUM When speaking about language teaching theories we have to clarify four basic terms since these sustain all the conceptual skeleton of what we are going to speak about. 1

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Academia ADOSOposiciones Profesorado Secundaria

TOPIC 13

Language Teaching Theories

in the 20th Century.

The Current Approach

For over a century, language educators have attempted to solve the

problems of language teaching by focusing attention almost exclusively on

teaching method. Although the question of how to teach languages has been

debated even longer than that - for over twenty-five centuries - theory development

as a debate on teaching methods has evolved particularly over the last hundred

years.

1- FOCUS, METHOD, TECHNIQUE AND CURRICULUM

When speaking about language teaching theories we have to clarify four

basic terms since these sustain all the conceptual skeleton of what we are going to

speak about.

Focus: It's the group of theories that have resulted from practical and theoretical

discussions in a given historical context. It usually implies and sometimes overtly

expresses certain objectives, and a particular view of language. It makes about

assumptions about the language learner: and underlying it are certain beliefs about

the nature of the language learning process. It also expresses a view of language

teaching by emphasising certain aspects of teaching as crucial to successful

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learning.

Method: the manner of teaching

Technique: the activities in the classroom.

We will understand that a different focus means a different method and of

course different techniques.

To these terms we must add another concept: the curriculum.

Curriculum: It's a document, which contains the design of a concrete teaching and

learning program. The curriculum has three parts according to the objectives

aimed: these are:

- The concepts: the listing of the elements that one must teach in order to

get these objectives. - The procedures: the materials that should be used

in order to cover these contents.

- The attitudes: We have, according to the latest tendencies in language

teaching, to make them appreciate the fact of learning a foreign

language as well as the fact of meeting new cultures, etc.

2- THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

Humanity has been learning languages for more than two thousand years

but it's especially in the last century when language teaching has evolved. Anyway,

we can distinguish three main schools of thought.

- The first one focuses the attention on leaning the language as a formal

code. It is the result of two important beliefs: one, that grammatical structures until

the early seventies and although they ~ I have begun to disappear, they partly

survive in the design of some textbooks.

- The second one focuses on communication. The great objective is the

development of the student's communicative capacity. The external reality appears

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in the classroom through the use of authentic material. From now on the

grammatical code starts to lose its importance as the only element of planning.

- With the third school of thought, the concept and practice of

communication evolves towards richer forms. With it the task based approach and

the project-based approach develop: the student makes things with English. The

foreign language is now an instrument. Language teaching has to bear in mind the

student’s characteristics and his way of learning, the task which has to be carried

out, the learning strategies and the attitudes, etc.

2.1 – THE GRAMMAR-TRANSLATION OR TRADITIONAL APPROACH

As its name suggests, this method emphasises the teaching of the second

language grammar. Its principal practice technique is translation from and into the

target language.

No full and carefully documented history of grammar-translation exists.

There is evidence that the teaching of grammar and translation has occurred

through the ages but the regular combination of grammar rules with translation into

the target language became especially popular only in the late eighteenth century.

The standard was: a statement of the rule, followed by a list of vocabulary and

translation exercises. But in the final decades of the nineteenth century grammar-

translation was attacked as a cold and lifeless approach to language teaching. The

majority of language teaching reforms in the late nineteenth century and

throughout the first half of the twentieth developed in opposition to grammar

translation.

In the nineteenth century translation was considered by practitioners as a

necessary preliminary to the study of literary works and even if that goal was not

reached grammar-translation was regarded as an educationally valid mental

discipline in its own right. Grammar-translation lay no emphasis on the speaking of

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the second language or listening to second language speech: it is a mainly book-

oriented method of working out and learning the grammatical system of the

language.

The language is presented in short grammatical chapters or lessons each

containing a few grammar points or rules which are set out and illustrated by

examples. A technical grammatical terminology is not avoided. The learner is

expected to study and memorise a particular rule and examples, for instance, a

verb paradigm or a list of prepositions. No systematic approach is made to

vocabulary or any other aspect of the second language. Exercises consist of

words, phrases and sentences in the first language which the learner, with the help

of a bilingual vocabulary list, translates into the target language in order to practise

the particular item or group of items. Other exercises are designed to practise

translation into the first language. As the learner progresses, he may advance from

translating isolated sentences to translating coherent second language texts into

the first language or first language texts into the second language.

The target language is primarily interpreted as a system of rules to be

observed in texts and sentences to be related to first language rules and

meanings. Language learning is implicitly viewed as an intellectual activity

involving rule learning, the memorisation of rules and facts related to first language

meanings by means of massive translation practice. The first language is

maintained as the reference system in the acquisition of the second language.

In spite of the virulent attacks that reformers made, the grammar translation

or traditional method has maintained itself remarkably well. The first language as a

reference system is indeed very important for the second language learner.

Therefore translation in one form or other crosslingual techniques can play a

certain part in language learning. Moreover, some learners endeavour to

understand the grammatical system of the second language. Hence grammar

teaching, too, may have some importance for them. Furthermore, thinking about

formal features of the second language and translation as a practice technique put

the learner into an active problem-solving situation. Translating forms part of the

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"academic" learning strategies. Finally, grammar-translation appears didactically

relatively easy to apply. The major defect of grammar-translation lies in the

overemphasis on the language as a mass of rules and exceptions and in the

imitations of practice techniques, which never emancipates the learner from the

dominance of the first language.

2.2 – THE DIRECT METHOD

As a reaction to the traditional way of teaching foreign languages, early

reformers, who included Henry Sweet in England, Wilhelm Viëtor in Germany,

and Paul Passy in France, believed that language teaching should be based on

scientific knowledge about language, that it should begin with speaking and

expand to other skills, that words and sentences should be presented in context,

that grammar should be taught inductively, and that translation should, for the

most part, be avoided.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, linguists became interested in the

problem of the best way to teach languages. An increasing attention to naturalistic

principles of language learning was given by other reformers, and for this reason

they are sometimes called advocates of a "natural" method. In fact several

attempts to make second language learning more like first language learning had

been made throughout the history of language teaching. For instance, if we trace

back to the sixteenth century, we find out that the Frenchman Montaigne described

his own experience on learning Latin for the first years of his life as a process

where he was exclusively addressed in Latin by a German tutor.

These ideas spread, and these natural language learning principles

consolidated in what became known as the Direct Method, the first of the "natural

methods", both in Europe and in the United States. It was quite successful in

private language schools, and difficult to implement in public secondary school

education. Among those who tried to apply natural principles to language classes

in America were L. Sauveur (1826-1907) and Maximiliam Berlitz who promoted

the use of intensive oral interaction in the target language. Saveur's method

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became known as the Natural Method and was seriously considered in language

teaching. In his book "An Introduction to the Teaching of Living Languages without

Grammar or Dictionary" (1874), Saveur described how their students learnt to

speak after a month on intensive oral work in class, avoiding the use of the mother

tongue, even for grammar explanations. Berlitz, however, never used the term

"natural" and named his method 'the Berlitz method" (1878), and it was known for

being taught in private language schools, high-motivated clients, the use of native-

speaking teachers, and no translation under any circumstances. In spite of his

success, this method lacked a basis in applied linguistic theory, and failed to

consider the practical realities of the classroom.

In Europe, one of the best known representatives of language teaching was

Gouin who, in 1880 attempted to build a methodology around observation of child

language learning when publishing L'Art d'Enseigner et d'Étudier les Langues.

He developed this technique after a long struggle trying to learn to speak and

understand German through formal grammar-based methods. However, their total

failure and his turning to observations of how children learn a second language is

one of the most impressive personal testimonials in the recorded annals of

language learning.

According to Richards & Rodgers (1992), although the Direct Method

enjoyed popularity in Europe, not everyone had embraced it enthusiastically. In the

1920s and 1930s, the British applied linguist Henry Sweet and other linguists

recognized its limitations. They argued for the development of sound

methodological principles as the basis for teaching techniques. These linguists

systematized the principles stated earlier by the Reform Movement and so laid the

foundations for what developed into the British approach to teaching English as a

foreign language. This would led later to Audiolingualism in the United States and

the Oral Approach or Situational Language Teaching in Britain.

2-3 – THE READING METHOD

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This method deliberately restricts the goal of language teaching to training in

reading comprehension.

As a creation of the twenties this theory was advocated by some British and

American educators. West (1926), teaching in India, argued that learning to read

fluently was more important for Indians learning English than speaking West

recommended an emphasis on reading not only because he regarded it as the

most useful skill to acquire in a foreign language, but also because it was the

easiest. He constructed readers with a controlled vocabulary and regular repetition

of new words. The student was given detailed instructions on reading strategies.

The course of study that was developed over a period of decades provided graded

reading materials and a systematic approach to learning to read. The spoken

language was not entirely neglected, but it was the reading objective that received

the main emphasis.

The techniques were not radically different from those developed under the

traditional methods. As under grammar-translation, the use of the first language

was not banned in language instruction. The introduction of the second language

was oral as in the direct method because facility in pronunciation as “inner speech”

was regarded as an important aid in reading comprehension. Above all, vocabulary

control in reading was regarded as of prone importance, and so was the distinction

between intensive reading for detailed study and extensive rapid reading of

graded. "readers" for general comprehension.

This method had a strongly pragmatic basis. Its educational assumptions

were similar to those current in the American school curriculum of the twenties,

namely to gear educational activities to specified ultimate practical uses.

The reading method grew out of practical educational considerations, not

from a shift in linguistic or psychological theory. It introduced in language teaching

some important new elements:

a) the possibility of devising techniques of language learning geared to

specific purposes.

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b) the application of vocabulary control to second language texts, as a

means of better grading of texts.

c) the creation of graded readers.

d) thanks to vocabulary control, the introduction of techniques of rapid

reading to the foreign language classroom,

2-4 – THE AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD

This method of the sixties has several distinctive characteristics:

1) separation of the skills - listening, writing, reading and speaking - and the

primacy of the audio-lingual over the graphic skills.

2) the use of dialogues as the chief means of presenting the languages.

3) emphasis on certain practice techniques, mimicry, memorisation and patterns

drills.

4) the use of the language laboratory.

5) establishing a linguistic and psychological theory as basis for the teaching

method.

While the principal methods of the first half of the century, the grammar

translation and direct methods, had largely developed in the European school

systems, audiolingualism is in origin mainly American. It was given different names

(aural-oral method, New Key method, etc.), bur whatever it was called, its period of

clearest definition as a distinct language teaching theory and of greatest influence

was quite brief: it lasted from about 1959 to 1966.

In the audio-lingual method the dominant emphasis is placed on the

"fundamental skills", i.e., listening and speaking. While reading and writing are not

neglected, listening and speaking are given priority and in the teaching sequence

precede reading and writing. Like the direct method, audiolingualism tries to

develop target language skills without reference to the mother tongue. Language

learning was viewed as the acquisition of a practical set of communicative skills.

Audiolingualism does not emphasise a presentation of grammatical

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knowledge or information as grammar-translation does but it does not taboo it

completely. It does reject the intellectual, the problem-solving approach of

grammar translation and does not favour the isolation of paradigmatic features

such as list of pronouns or verb forms. The use of the first language is not as

severely restricted as it was in the direct method. The learning process is viewed in

the audio-lingual method as one of habituation and conditioning without

intervention of any intellectual analysis. Emphasis is laid on active and simple

practice. The intention is to make language learning less of a mental burden and

more a matter of relatively effortless and frequent repetition and imitation .The

audiolingual method has introduced memorisation of dialogue and imitative

repetition (mimicry) as specific learning techniques. In addition it has developed

pattern drills (also called structural drills). Such drills were not unknown before, but

they became essential features of audiolingualism. Audiolingualism techniques,

therefore, appeared to offer the possibility of language learning without requiring

strong academic background and inclination.

Audiolingualism reflects the descriptive, structural and contrastive linguistics

of the fifties and the sixties. Skinner in "Verbal Behaviour" applied his theories of

how human language is acquired. He suggested that language is a kind of

behaviour. Stimulus-response-reinforcement. According to Skinner , languages are

made up of a series of habits, and if learners could develop all these habits, they

would be able to speak the language correctly. He also believed that a contrastive

analysis of languages would be invaluable in teaching languages.

In the early sixties audiolingualism had raised hopes of ushering in a golden

age of language learning but in practical terms its hopes were not fulfilled. In the

long run, students were not creative. They repeated things like parrots but most of

the time they didn't know what they were saying Teachers applying the

Audiolingual method conscientiously, complained about the lack of effectiveness of

the techniques in the long run and the boredom engendered among students.

Another problem was that these patterns excluded semantics. In view of these

criticisms it is necessary to remind oneself of the major contributions of

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audiolingualism to language teaching. First, it was among the first theories to

recommend the development of a language teaching theory on declared linguistic

and psychological principles. Second, it attempted to make language learning

accessible to large groups of ordinary learners. Third, it stressed syntactical

progression, while previously methods had tended to be preoccupied with

vocabulary and morphology. Fourth, it led to the development of simple

techniques, without translation, of varied, graded and intensive practice of specific

features of the language. Last, it developed the separation of the language skills

into a pedagogical device. The audiolingual method introduced specifically

designed techniques of auditory and oral practice.

2-5 – THE AUDIO-VISUAL METHOD

A visually represented scenario provides the chief means of involving the

learner in meaningful utterance and contexts.

Language learning is visualised as falling into several stages: a first stage to

which the audio-visual method is particularly applicable in which the learner

becomes familiar with everyday language. a second stage involving the capacity to

talk more consecutively on general topics and to read non-specialised fiction and

the newspaper: and a third stage involving the use of more specialised discourse

of professional and other interests. The audio-visual method is intended particularly

for the first stage.

Audio-visual teaching consists of a carefully thought-out but rigid order of

events. The lesson begins with the filmstrip and tape presentation. The sound

recordings provide a stylised dialogue and a narrative commentary. A filmstrip

frame corresponds to an utterance. In other words, the visual image and spoken

utterance complement each other and constitute a semantic unit. In the second

phase of the teaching sequence the teacher through pointing, demonstrating,

selective listening, question and answer explain the meaning of sense groups. In

the third phase, the dialogue is repeated several times and memorised by frequent

replays of the tape recordings and the filmstrip, or by laboratory practice. In the

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next stage of the teaching sequence, the developments phase (exploitation or

transposition), students are gradually emancipated from the tape-and-filmstrip

presentation: for example. the filmstrip is now shown without the tape recording,

and the students are asked to recall the commentary or make up their own; or the

subject matter of the scenario is modified and applied to the student himself, his

family or friends, by means of question and answer or role playing. Besides this

thorough treatment of the dialogue situation, each lesson contains a portion for

grammatical drill which practises a pattern or a group of patterns which has

previously occurred in the context of the tape and filmstrip dialogue presentation.

Grammatical as well as phonological features are practised. No importance is

attributed to linguistic explanations. Writing and reading are delayed but in due

course are nonetheless given emphasis.

The audio-visual method seeks a basis in linguistics. It derives its

grammatical and lexical context from descriptive linguistic studies. But in contrast

to the antecedents of the audio-lingual method, the audio-visual method stresses

the social nature and situational embeddedness of language. The visual

presentation is not an added gimmick. It is intended to simulate social context in

which language is used.

The audio-visual approach represents a distinctive modern attempt to come

to grips with the problem of language learning. It has defined three different levels

of language instruction. it has attempted to place language learning into a

simplified social context and to teach language from the outset as meaningful

spoken communication. The replacement of the printed text of the direct method by

a visually and aurally presented scenario has provided a fresh alternative in

language pedagogy and was a responsive and, at the same time, responsible way

of exploiting technology for the benefit of language learning. The audio-visual

method is open to two major criticisms. Like the direct method, from which much of

its pedagogy derives, it has difficulties in conveying meaning: the visual filmstrip

image is no guarantee that the learner does not misinterpret the meaning of the

utterance. The equivalence between utterance and visual images is often

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theoretically questionable, and presents practical difficulties. The other criticism

that can be made is that the rigid teaching sequences imposed by this method are

based The other criticism that can be made is that the rigid teaching sequences

imposed by this method are based on an entirely unproved assumption about

learning sequences.

2-6- THE COGNITIVE THEORY

This theory or method has been interpreted by some as a 'modified, up-

dated grammar-translation theory' (Carroll 1966.102) and by others as a modified,

up-to-date direct method approach (Hester 1970; Diller 1971, 1975, 1978). In its

recent forms, as expressed by Diller (1971, I 978) or Chastain (1976), it lays

emphasis on the conscious acquisition of language as a meaningful system and it

seeks a basis in cognitive psychology and in transformational grammar.

No single theorist can be identified as the main proponent of a cognitive

approach. Carroll (1966) was the first to characterise a cognitive theory of

language teaching. Chastain (1969, 1976) gives a helpful interpretation of cognitive

theory and teaching. Diller (1971, 1975, 1978) has contrasted the cognitive and

audio-lingual methods. As a fully-fledged language teaching theory the cognitive

method has not as yet been critically examined. In the early eighties its contribution

has been overshadowed by the increasing shift of interest to communicative

approaches.

As an alternative to the audiolingual method the cognitive theory developed

from the mid-sixties in response to the criticisms levelled against the audiolingual

method. The rediscovery of grammar-translation or the direct method was no mere

turning back of the clock. It was an attempt to bring to language pedagogy the new

insights of psychology, psycholinguistics, and modern developments in linguistics.

Several language programrnes have been published since the early seventies

which claim to be based on cognitive theory. But the practice techniques that this

method has yielded have hardly introduced much that is new. The main effects of

the cognitive theory seem to have been that it has loosened the tight hold that the

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audiolingual method had exercised on materials and practice and that it removed

the stigma that had been placed on grammar-translation and direct method

practices.

Broadly speaking, the goal of cognitive teaching is the same as that

proposed by audio-lingual theorists (Chastain 1976: 146-7), but is less differences

in immediate objectives are apparent. Cognitive theory is less concerned with the

primacy of the audio-lingual skills. Instead it emphasises the control of the

language in all its manifestations as a coherent and meaningful system, a kind of

consciously acquired competence. which the learner can then put to use in real-life

situations. Carroll defines the objective in these terms:

'The theory attaches more importance to the learner's understanding of the structure of the foreign language than to the facility in using that structure, since it is believed that provided the student has a proper degree of cognitive control over the structures of the language, facility will develop automatically with use of the language in meaningful situations.' (Carroll 1966: 102)

The techniques are characterised by Carroll as follows

“.... learning a language is a process of acquiring conscious control of the phonological, grammatical, and lexical patterns of the second language, largely through study and analysis of these patterns as a body of knowledge.' (Op. cit.)

In other words, the cognitive approach does not reject, disguise or de-

emphasise the conscious teaching of grammar or of language rules. It does not

avoid the presentation of reading and writing in association with listening and

speaking. Instead of expecting automatic command of the language and habit-

formation from intensive drill, it seeks the intellectual understanding by the learner

of the language as a system and practice of meaningful material is regarded as

being of greater merit than the drive towards automatic control. The behaviourist

view of learning in terms of conditioning, shaping, reinforcement, habit-formation,

and over-learning, has been replaced by an emphasis on rule learning. Meaningful

practice, and creativity.

Cognitive theory is principally a critique of audiolingualism in the light of

changes in linguistics and psychological theory. It has pinpointed theoretical and

practical weaknesses of the earlier theory and has drawn attention to important

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facets of language and language learning which the audiolingual theory had

disregarded or underemphasized, such as creativity and meaning. it has also re-

discovered valuable features in grammar-translation and in the direct

method.

2-7 – PRESENT-DAY TRENDS: THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

Communicative Language Teaching has its origins in two sources. First, the

changes in the British and American linguistic theory in the mid-late sixties and

secondly, changes in the educational realities in Europe. Therefore teaching

traditions until then, such as Situational Language Teaching in Britain and

Audiolingualism in the United States started to be questioned by applied linguists

who saw the need to focus in language teaching on communicative proficiency

rather than on mere mastery of structures.

Meanwhile, the role of the European Common Market and the Council of

Europe had a significant impact on the development of Communicative language

teaching since there was an increasing need to teach adults the major languages

for a better educational cooperation. In 1971 a system in which learning tasks are

broken down into "units" is launched into the market by a British linguist, D.A.

Wilkins. It attempts to demonstrate the systems of meanings that a language

learner needs to understand and express within two types: notional categories

(time, sequence, quantity or frequency) and categories of communicative function

(requests, offers, complaints). The rapid application of these ideas by textbook

writers and its acceptance by teaching specialists gave prominence to what

became the Communicative Approach or simply Communicative Language

Teaching.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, there has been a variety of theoretical

challenges to the audio-lingual method. Scholars such as Halliday, Hymes, Labov

and the American linguist Noam Chomsky challenged previous assumptions about

language structure and language learning, taking the position that language is

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creative (not memorized by repetition and imitation) and rule governed (not based

on habits). For Hymes (1972), the goal of language teaching is to develop a

"communicative competence", that is, the knowledge and ability a learner needs to

be communicatively competent in a speech community. Halliday (1970) elaborated

a functional theory of the functions of language, and Canale and Swain (1980)

identified five dimensions of communicative competence: grammatical,

sociolinguistic, discourse, sociocultural and strategic competence. Chomsky

levelled some criticisms at structural linguistic theory in his book Syntactic

Structures (1957). He demonstrated that the fundamental characteristics of

language -creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences- were not part of the

structural theories of language.

This communicative view is considered an approach rather than a method

which provides a humanistic approach to teaching where interactive processes of

communication receive priority. Its rapid adoption and implementation resulted

from a strong support of leading British applied linguists and language specialist,

as well as institutions, such as the British Council. However, some of the claims

are still being looked at more critically as this approach raises important issues for

teacher training, materials development, and testing and evaluation (Richards' &

Rodgers 1992).

The Communicative Approach is in fact a set of principles about teaching

including recommendations about method and syllabus where the focus is on

meaningingful communication not structure, use not usage. In this approach,

students are given tasks to accomplish using language, instead of studying the

language. The syllabus is based primarily on functional development (asking

permission, asking directions, etc.), not structural development (past tense,

conditionals, etc.). In essence, a functional syllabus replaces a structural syllabus.

There is also less emphasis on error correction as fluency and communication

become more important than accuracy As well, authentic and meaningful language

input becomes more important. The class becomes more student-centered as

students accomplish their tasks with other students, while the teacher plays more

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of an observer role.

2.7.1- Use and Usage

Use is how the language is used in communication: The function of language. This

can be contrasted with usage, which is the grammatical explanation of some

language.

Have you ever . . .

Have you ever eaten fried snake?

Use: To inquire about past experiences.

Usage: A present perfect question with ever placed in front of the past participle.

2.7.2- Functional syllabus and structural syllabus.

In a functional syllabus functions are the primary organizing feature. The

course content is based on functions not grammatical structures. A typical unit

might be Giving Advice. The content of the unit would include:

                        I think you should . . .

                        Why don't you . . .

                        If I were you, I would . . .

                        You'd better . . .

This could be a very basic unit taught to  beginners even though the the

grammatical complexity of these expressions is quite high (including a second

conditional with subjunctive mood!). This can be contrasted to structural syllabuses

where the syllabus is ordered according to grammatical complexity.

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Other examples of functions include: asking for directions, telling stories

about the past, talking about rules, and requesting information

2.7.3- Fluency:

Fluency refers to the ability to produce rapid, flowing, natural speech, but not

necessarily grammatically correct speech. This is often contrasted with accuracy

2.7.4- Accuracy:

Accuracy refers to the ability to produce grammatically correct sentences

that are comprehensible

3. CONCLUSION - NEW DIRECTIONS ON LANGUAGE TEACHING.

What's now, what's next? The future is always uncertain when anticipating

methodological directions in second language teaching, although applied linguistic

journals assume the carrying on and refinement of current trends within a

communicative approach. They are linked to present concerns on education, and

they reflect current trends of language curriculum development at the level of

cognitive strategies, literature, grammar, phonetics or technological innovative

methods. The Internet Age anticipates the development of teaching and learning

in instructional settings by means of an on-line collaboration system, perhaps via

on-line computer networks or other

technological resources.

A critical question for language educators is about 'What content" and "how

much content" best supports language learning. The goal is to best match learner

needs and interests and to promote optimal development of second language

competence. The natural content for language educators is literature and

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language itself, and we are beginning to see a resurgence of interest in literature

and in discourse and genre analysis, schema theory, pragmatics, and functional

grammar propose an interest in functionally based approaches to language

teaching.

Also, "Learning to Learn" the key theme in an instructional focus on

language learning strategies. Such strategies include, at the most basic level,

memory tricks, and at higher levels, cognitive and metacognitive strategies for

learning, thinking, planning, and self-monitoring. Research findings suggest that

strategies can indeed be taught to language learners, that learners will apply

these strategies in language learning tasks. Simple and yet highly effective

strategies,

such as those that help learners remember and access new second language

vocabulary items, will attract considerable instructional interest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- Jespersen, O; Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin, Allen and

Unwin, 1992, London

- Crystal, D; Linguistics, Penguin Books, 1985, Harmondsworth, England.

- Richards, J & Rodgers, T; Approaches and Methods in Language

Teaching, Cambridge 1992, Cambridge University Press

- De la Cruz, Isabel et ali; La Lingüística Aplicada a finales del Siglo XX:

Ensayos y Propuestas, artículo aparecido en la revista de la Asociación

Española de Lingüística Aplicada (AESLA), Universidad de Alcalá, 2201

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