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Here we learn about the different teaching philosophies, old and new. Certain techniques, like the audio-lingualism and grammar-translation are indeed limiting in today's study culture, though they remain useful tools. From my experience I find that adult learners are put at ease if there's an element of the latter. It is important regardless of age and level to mix the techniques as this will help captivate the attention and motivatin of students. It will also be a more fun and effective way to repeat the language. My pedagogy so far, whereas naturally rich with elicitation methods, has been lacking in the deeper study modes. I would say that my lessons oscillate between the Engage and the Activate stages using a variety of the techniques listed. I believe this to be due to my first EFL experience, in a favela in Brazil. Here the students, children, adolescents and adults had such a poor knowledge of their own language, most were in fact illeterate and it was an impossible task to present written work. Though I did use the board for brainstorming, it was more for my own ability to recap. I look forward to finding new ways to introduce the study aspect in my future lessons. I have naturally used most of the other ideas presented in this unit. Though the suggestopaedia and silent way methods seem strange to me. First of all, the silent way is completely unnatural as our first contact with all human language is audio. We hear sounds over and over again and it is only as our eyes are fully formed and focused that we begin to associate sound with object. It is much more appropriate to lean upon the oral and aural aspects of language whilst combining with real objects, flashcards, teacher as model, some drilling etc. Suggestopaedia seems more like a therapy session, where therapist is often projected into role of parent. As a singer/musician, I use a lot of music in my lessons. With older students sometimes they like to discover the meaning of their favourite songs and the younger children especially love singing (in some cases just listening). I also like to use sound affects during story telling to highten the meaning of certain passages. Even when few visual aids have been available to me, studen reaction has always been appropriate. But despite my extensive use of sound and music I do not grasp the reasoning behind \"playing relaxing music whilst reading a text\". What does the student gain/learn from this? To finish, I look forward to experimenting with the Straight Arrow, Boomerang and Patchwork frameworks in my future lesson plans.
