A summary of the closing plenary (Mis)-Applied Linguistics at the TESOL France colloquium on 18 November 2012
Chia Suan Chong started her plenary at the 31st
annual TESOL France colloquium by warning us there would be 65 slides in her PowerPoint
and introducing the concept of stealth pair work – speaking quietly, in a muted
voice with a person sitting next to you. Considering the fact the audience
consisted of about 200 ELT teachers, this wasn't an easy task. I had been
really looking forward to this talk, so I was prepared to shut up for 60
minutes. I had expected Chia to debunk ELT myths and show how certain findings
of applied linguistics research have been misapplied in ELT. Instead, the talk
went in a different direction as Chia took us on a journey through the history
of ELT.
Her colourful account of different methodologies
started from the Grammar Translation method. According to this oldest
teaching method, used originally for teaching Greek and Latin, students
memorised long lists of isolated words and grammar rules in order to translate
passages into L1. No interaction or speaking in the target language was
involved. Unlike the Grammar Translation, the Direct Method, which
appeared in the early 20th century, focused on oral communication. Based
on the belief that students need to speak and hear the target language in order
to learn it, teaching with the Direct Method consisted of short interactions
between the teacher and student practising every day situations. No translation
or interaction in L1 was allowed here. These "authentic" every day
situations would often involve exchanges such as this:
An outgrowth of the Direct Method was Audio Lingual
Method (aka the Army Method), the essence of which Chia aptly demonstrated with this slide:
It was not clear to me at this stage why Chia kept
referring to it as the Direct Method. Surely, the two have a lot in common, for
example, the focus on correct pronunciation and grammatical accuracy and
adherence to the target language. But Audiolingualism started much later - after WWII, mainly in the
USA
and, as Chia acknowledged, was closely linked to Skinner's Behavourism.
According to behaviourist psychology, learning occurs through a system of
reinforcements through drilling and repetition or, to put it
bluntly, "hitting students on the head until they get it right".
Not that the audience needed any comic relief – Chia
kepts us engaged and entertained in equal measure throughout – but the humorous
highlight of the presentation was the following video. See for yourself:
This is a true lexical approach, Chia claimed, tongue-in-cheek, because students are encouraged to memorise whole phrases and chunks. She then
moved on to Noam Chomsky and his "device" – the Language Acquisition
Device (LAD) that is. According to Chomsky, a human brain contains a LAD which
allows us to make an infinite number of grammatically correct sentences, a
hypothesis which regrettably gave further impetus to contrived grammar teaching.
After Chomsky came Krashen and I started to get the feeling that
noone would escape unscathed tonight :) But I hope the irony of Chia's remarks
was not lost on the audience. Chia merely highlighted shortcomings of various
methods and theories and, at the same time, stressed how each and every one of
them has something useful to offer. For example, translation is inevitable and
often necessary. Try, for example, explaining the word "happen" without
using translation!
Krashen was (indirectly?) responsible for Suggestopaedia, one of the alternative approaches which emerged in the 1970s
after Audiolingualism was largely discredited. Suggestopaedia, later renamed -
for some inexplicable reason - into Desuggestopaedia, is all about creating a
relaxed state of mind in order to lower what Krashen referred to as the
affective filter. To this end, Suggestopaedia makes use of classical music,
comfortable furniture and colourful classrooms. Apart from Krashen's affective
filter, this approach was not influenced by any particular theory of language
and didn’t gain mass appeal. Another alternative approach of the 1970s was
Total Physical Response (TPR), where the teacher gives a series of verbal commands
and learners do the action (for example, jump or open the window). Apart from
its obvious benefit for kinaesthetic learners and young learners, TPD is
"more fun for the teacher than students", concluded Chia and moved on
to another short-lived and probably the most left-field approach…
[Long pause]
TheSilent
Way
Unlike TPR, where teacher has all the fun, theSilent Way
student-centred approach, in that it promotes interaction, teamwork,
problem-solving and learner autonomy. The teacher guides students through a
series of progressively more complex tasks, using gestures, visuals and
Cuisenaire rods, while staying silent most of the time. Lastly, another humanistic
approach, where the teacher takes a back seat, is Community Language Learning
(CLL). CLL involves students sitting in a circle with the teacher standing
outside and acting as a facilitator and "paraphraser". When a student
decides to say something (s)he calls the teacher and whisper what they want to
say, in their L1. The teacher whispers back the equivalent utterance in English
which the student then repeats.
In the final part
of her fascinating talk Chia traced the origins of the Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT or
Communicative Approach) to Vygotsky and his zone of proximal
development (ZPD). ZPD in essence is the gap
between the learner's current developmental level and what (s)he can achieve
with educational support or in collaboration with more capable peers. This
interesting connection was one of the many insights offered in Chia's talk
Sadly enough, Communicative
Lang Teaching with its seemingly thematic syllabus, is, according to Chia, a
traditional, linear grammar syllabus in disguise. Likewise, Krashen's
comprehensible input (i+1) has been misinterpreted to cover only grammar input,
and not lexis or features of discourse. The unfortunate result is careful
sequencing of grammar items according to their perceived complexity – hardly an
approach advocated by the fathers of the CLT such as Widdowson or Nunan. Chia
talked favourably of the Task-Based Learning (TBL) as an approach focusing on
meaningful communication and negotiation of meaning before summing up the main
factors necessary for Second Language Acquisition: interaction, negotiation of
meaning and engaging in meaningful tasks.
In conclusion, Chia stressed that principled
eclecticism (I prefer the term "informed eclecticism") and "cherry picking" are even more important today
because our students know more thanks to technology. This put me in mind of my
Pecha Kucha at the ETAI 2011 conference entitled "On Eclecticism and Other Exotic
Fruits" where I used similar metaphors. I talked about how an eclectic approach allows teachers to draw on aspects of a variety of methods and select what is appropriate to particular students in particular contexts. But teachers who adopt such an approach need to know the ingredients
of the diet they are offering their students.
Or, to use one of my favourite Henry Widdowson's quotes:
If you are interested in the evolution of language teaching methods, these two titles are particularly recommended:
 |
| Chia explaining 'stealth pair work' |
Chia Suan Chong started her plenary at the 31st
annual TESOL France colloquium by warning us there would be 65 slides in her PowerPoint
and introducing the concept of stealth pair work – speaking quietly, in a muted
voice with a person sitting next to you. Considering the fact the audience
consisted of about 200 ELT teachers, this wasn't an easy task. I had been
really looking forward to this talk, so I was prepared to shut up for 60
minutes. I had expected Chia to debunk ELT myths and show how certain findings
of applied linguistics research have been misapplied in ELT. Instead, the talk
went in a different direction as Chia took us on a journey through the history
of ELT.
From all translation to no translation
Her colourful account of different methodologies
started from the Grammar Translation method. According to this oldest
teaching method, used originally for teaching Greek and Latin, students
memorised long lists of isolated words and grammar rules in order to translate
passages into L1. No interaction or speaking in the target language was
involved. Unlike the Grammar Translation, the Direct Method, which
appeared in the early 20th century, focused on oral communication. Based
on the belief that students need to speak and hear the target language in order
to learn it, teaching with the Direct Method consisted of short interactions
between the teacher and student practising every day situations. No translation
or interaction in L1 was allowed here. These "authentic" every day
situations would often involve exchanges such as this:
Teacher: Have you two ears?
Student: Yes, I have two ears.
An outgrowth of the Direct Method was Audio Lingual
Method (aka the Army Method), the essence of which Chia aptly demonstrated with this slide:
It was not clear to me at this stage why Chia kept
referring to it as the Direct Method. Surely, the two have a lot in common, for
example, the focus on correct pronunciation and grammatical accuracy and
adherence to the target language. But Audiolingualism started much later - after WWII, mainly in the
and, as Chia acknowledged, was closely linked to Skinner's Behavourism.
According to behaviourist psychology, learning occurs through a system of
reinforcements through drilling and repetition or, to put it
bluntly, "hitting students on the head until they get it right".
Not that the audience needed any comic relief – Chia
kepts us engaged and entertained in equal measure throughout – but the humorous
highlight of the presentation was the following video. See for yourself:
This is a true lexical approach, Chia claimed, tongue-in-cheek, because students are encouraged to memorise whole phrases and chunks. She then
moved on to Noam Chomsky and his "device" – the Language Acquisition
Device (LAD) that is. According to Chomsky, a human brain contains a LAD which
allows us to make an infinite number of grammatically correct sentences, a
hypothesis which regrettably gave further impetus to contrived grammar teaching.
After Chomsky came Krashen and I started to get the feeling that
noone would escape unscathed tonight :) But I hope the irony of Chia's remarks
was not lost on the audience. Chia merely highlighted shortcomings of various
methods and theories and, at the same time, stressed how each and every one of
them has something useful to offer. For example, translation is inevitable and
often necessary. Try, for example, explaining the word "happen" without
using translation!
Alternative approaches of the 1970s
Krashen was (indirectly?) responsible for Suggestopaedia, one of the alternative approaches which emerged in the 1970s
after Audiolingualism was largely discredited. Suggestopaedia, later renamed -
for some inexplicable reason - into Desuggestopaedia, is all about creating a
relaxed state of mind in order to lower what Krashen referred to as the
affective filter. To this end, Suggestopaedia makes use of classical music,
comfortable furniture and colourful classrooms. Apart from Krashen's affective
filter, this approach was not influenced by any particular theory of language
and didn’t gain mass appeal. Another alternative approach of the 1970s was
Total Physical Response (TPR), where the teacher gives a series of verbal commands
and learners do the action (for example, jump or open the window). Apart from
its obvious benefit for kinaesthetic learners and young learners, TPD is
"more fun for the teacher than students", concluded Chia and moved on
to another short-lived and probably the most left-field approach…
[Long pause]
The
Way
Unlike TPR, where teacher has all the fun, the
student-centred approach, in that it promotes interaction, teamwork,
problem-solving and learner autonomy. The teacher guides students through a
series of progressively more complex tasks, using gestures, visuals and
Cuisenaire rods, while staying silent most of the time. Lastly, another humanistic
approach, where the teacher takes a back seat, is Community Language Learning
(CLL). CLL involves students sitting in a circle with the teacher standing
outside and acting as a facilitator and "paraphraser". When a student
decides to say something (s)he calls the teacher and whisper what they want to
say, in their L1. The teacher whispers back the equivalent utterance in English
which the student then repeats.
The above practices are often described as "designer" or guru-led methods as each one is associated with a particular person:
All these methods were a subject of a recent #ELTchat and a comprehensive summary can be found on Rachael Roberts's blog – click here |
CLT or getting
it wrong all over again
In the final part
of her fascinating talk Chia traced the origins of the Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT or
Communicative Approach) to Vygotsky and his zone of proximal
development (ZPD). ZPD in essence is the gap
between the learner's current developmental level and what (s)he can achieve
with educational support or in collaboration with more capable peers. This
interesting connection was one of the many insights offered in Chia's talk
Sadly enough, Communicative
Lang Teaching with its seemingly thematic syllabus, is, according to Chia, a
traditional, linear grammar syllabus in disguise. Likewise, Krashen's
comprehensible input (i+1) has been misinterpreted to cover only grammar input,
and not lexis or features of discourse. The unfortunate result is careful
sequencing of grammar items according to their perceived complexity – hardly an
approach advocated by the fathers of the CLT such as Widdowson or Nunan. Chia
talked favourably of the Task-Based Learning (TBL) as an approach focusing on
meaningful communication and negotiation of meaning before summing up the main
factors necessary for Second Language Acquisition: interaction, negotiation of
meaning and engaging in meaningful tasks.
Eclecticism according to Chia (and me)
In conclusion, Chia stressed that principledeclecticism (I prefer the term "informed eclecticism") and "cherry picking" are even more important today
because our students know more thanks to technology. This put me in mind of my
Pecha Kucha at the ETAI 2011 conference entitled "On Eclecticism and Other Exotic
Fruits" where I used similar metaphors. I talked about how an eclectic approach allows teachers to draw on aspects of a variety of methods and select what is appropriate to particular students in particular contexts. But teachers who adopt such an approach need to know the ingredients
of the diet they are offering their students.
Or, to use one of my favourite Henry Widdowson's quotes:
"If you say you are
eclectic but cannot state the principles of your eclecticism, you are not
eclectic, merely confused"
Chia Suan Chong is a teacher and teacher trainer with IH in blogger (www.chiasuanchong.wordpress.com and www.eltknowledge.com) and a self-confessed conference junkie. |
 |
| With Chia at TESOL France | Photo by Bethany Cagnol |
Further reading
If you are interested in the evolution of language teaching methods, these two titles are particularly recommended:
Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and
Methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis. CUP 2001
Diane Larsen-Freeman. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.
OUP 2000
Comments
Post a Comment