Teach English in Beijie Jiedao - Zhangye Shi

Unit 3,'Theories, Methods and Techniques' gives an overview of the different methods and techniques to be applied during the teaching. The methods explained in this chapter has its own advantages and drawbacks. The most common methods and techniques were; 1. Grammar Translation: The basic principle of this system is learning a language through finding equivalents in the students own language and the foreign language being learned. The drawbacks of this system is students will learn about the language rather than learning the language. teachers should be proficient in the student's native language also. This may be difficult most of the time. 2. Audio-lingualism is the second method which is based on the behavioural theories of learning. it concentrates more on long repetition drills which has went out of fashion. 3. Presentation, Practice and Production(PPP), has proved to be very effective in teaching simple language at lower level and with higher level students who already know a lot of language. Here the teachers first present the context and situation for the language, demonstrates the meaning and form of the language and then the students practice it. This technique lacks flexibility. 4. Task based learning focus more on task than language. 5. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) stresses the importance of language functions. This technique stresses more on completion of the task than accuracy. 6. Community Language Learning(CLL): In this method students typically sit in a circle and is upto them to decide what they want to talk about. This is more student centered and it allows teachers to focus on the need. 7. Silent way makes use of coloured rods, and each colour represents an aspect of English. The most notable feature of this method is the behaviour of the teacher who says as little as possible. 8. Suggestopedia largely focuses on the need for the students to be comfortable, confident and relaxed in order for learning to be more effective. There is a parent -children relatioship between the student and the teacher.This lesson has three main parts. 9.Lexical Approach argues words and phrases are far better building blocks for language acquisition than grammatical structure. There is no clear answer which among the above technique is the best. There are various factors which will play a part in our decision. An effective method put forward by Jeremy Harmer called ESA, (Engage, Study, Activate), gives the teacher a great deal of flexibility in the classroom. Engage: In this method the teachers try to arouse the students interest, thus involving their emotions. The aim is to warm up students and to get them thinking and speaking in English. In this phase there is no need to teach them but we should engage them. We can make use of different games in this phase like Introduction prompts, Partner Information share, word linking, I spy etc. In Study phase students will focus on the language and how it is constructed. Activities could range from the practice and study of the single sound to an examination and practice.Students can study in a variety of different ways but the main focus is language learning. In activate stage students use any or all of the language they know. This focus on fluency than accuracy. Role plays, Debates , story writing are few methods we can use in the activate phase. From this unit I have learnt Engage , Study and Activate are the three elements that need to be included in our teaching to provide a balanced range of activities for the students. For learners to get maximum benefit from the classroom learning, they need to be motivated, should have good exposure to the language and then they should be given opportunities to use it.