session seven

Session 7: From the traditional to the contemporary in second language teaching & learning
Monday, November 23, 2009

Preparation

Time has elapsed and dramatic changes have happened in language teaching. New insights regarding language learning, the nature of the language, the role of the learner and teacher have emerged. Accordingly, there has been considerable number of developments in the way of teaching as well as learning. The shift from the traditional trends to the contemporary ones was partly due to ineffectiveness of traditional approaches and partly due to the relevance of language learning to the general education. These changes caused a reassessment and reevaluation of practice in different areas.

Assistance

The mentioned changes didn't happen in a revolutionary way rather they are more evolutionary; since they added new insights and concepts to the existing ones and didn't reject the previous principles thoroughly. Considering Widdowson's notions, the concept of evolution is in close relationship with the idea of accommodation, which means making the already existing knowledge similar to the new information. As a result of changing in views on the nature of language and learning, some changes have been brought about to pedagogical practice. On the same lines, these changes have influenced on the following areas:

Syllabus design: a syllabus can be defined as a prespecification of what a teacher is going to do and the activities, tasks, the materials will he/she utilize and the roles of the learners and teachers and the way of evaluation. Traditionally content was regarded as destination and methodology as the rout. But contemporarily, the separation of content and process is questioned and the content is specified according to the learners' needs rather than with reference to the classroom as in traditional syllabus.

Approach to teaching: The methods of teaching have been changed from transmission models to interpretation ones. In the former, the learner acts as a passive recipient of knowledge from the side of the teacher who acts as a transmitter of information. In fact there has been a shift from a banking view to liberation view. Also a shift has happened from a high structure teaching in which the teacher is at the control of the instructional process to a low structure teaching which gives more power and control over the content and process to the learner.

Approach to language: the shortcomings of GTM and ALM as well as teaching grammar communicatively and using grammar in order to express communicative meanings, resulted in the changes to the approach of language.

Role of learners: traditionally learners had a passive role with no control over what and how to learn and they didn't know how to act in an authentic situation and only were capable of doing some reproductive tasks in which they just copy and imitate the tasks laid down by the teacher whereas in recent years a much more emphasis has been on the learners as being active. Furthermore, a creative use of language is encouraged and the learners are given opportunities to respond appropriately in new situations outside the classroom.

Using language texts: the textbooks which learners traditionally read were prescribed written classroom texts while contemporarily the use of student generated data and authentic texts is preferred.

Facilities for learning: the innovative classrooms not only use the prescribed textbooks, but also audio tape, students' workbooks, access to internet, tests, world wide web site and other support resources are used. The incorporation of authentic data and realea to the class in a way brings the real world to the classroom.

Approach to learning: in contemporary SLT, an emphasis has been put on the very role of styles and strategies and a process dimension has been added. In other words, learners learn how to read, listen, gather information, work in cooperation and act in unknown situations effectively.

Classroom organization: cooperative, task-based learning with learners working in groups and pairs which is based on the principles of experiential learning is of high significance nowadays rather than a teacher fronted classroom.

Assessment: traditionally learners have little control over assessing what they have learnt and evaluation of students is done by some standardized tests whereas in contemporary language teaching, there is a room for the learners' self assessment. However, the distinction between testing and assessment should be taken into account. Where testing is done based on the idea of just one person, the teacher, assessment is not the one and only one process. The judgments of the teacher, peers, parents as well as the learners themselves are taken into regard.

Language out of class: in traditional approaches seldom are the learners encouraged to use language out of the class while today the teachers should make use of some strategies in order to activate the language out of the classroom. Some of these out of class tasks might include engaging in peer review sessions, conducting e-journals, taking part in conversation exchanges, doing projects.

Application

In a time that such dramatic kinds of changes have taken place, again it is me that should accommodate my own special classes and learners with the innovations. So my role changes from a person who banks the knowledge in the empty minds of the learners to an interdependent participant and an interpreter of knowledge, to teach learners how to learn and to bring a process dimension to the class. A big burden over my shoulders…