Your beliefs about Language,Learning & Teaching.ppt

YOUR BELIEFS
ABOUT LANGUAGE,
LEARNING AND
TEACHING

WHAT?
Language
Description
HOW?
Learning
Theories
LANGUAGE
COURSE
WHO? WHY?
WHERE? WHEN?
Needs Analysis
Nature of
particular
target and
learning
situation
Methodology
Syllabus
FACTORS AFFECTING COURSE DESIGN

ARTICULATING BELIEFS
 The complex nature of beliefs and
understandings provides a teacher
guidance in his/her decisions
 However, beliefs are not necessarily
something that teachers can easily
articulate or are completely aware of
(Johnson 1998).

ARTICULATING BELIEFS (cont.)
To understand where beliefs come from you
need to look at your past experience and the
beliefs about learning and teaching that grow
out of and guide that experience.
 All of the influences – as a learner, as a
teacher, as a colleague – provide the basis
for your understanding of how languages are
taught and learned and the beliefs that guide
your choices.

• In fact, there are multiple possibilities, multiple
justifications and multiple answers for the
questions arising during the process of course
design, depending on the context, on the
teacher’s experience and his beliefs and
understanding.

The general advice is that more is not
necessarily better, and that course designer
must have confidence in his principles and
experience to make choices and decisions.

• One framework for articulating your beliefs is
Stern’s in “Fundamental Concepts of Language
Teaching”(1983) and “Issues and Options in
Language Teaching” (1992). This framework is
modified by Graves (2000) which proposes that
we need to address the concepts of:
- Your view of language
- Your view of the social context of language
- Your view of learning and learners
- Your view of teaching

BELIEFS ABOUT LANGUAGE
Questions:
- What language is?
- What being proficient in a language means?
- What you teach and how you teach it?
The answers to these questions can be different.

BELIEFS ABOUT LANGUAGE (cont.)
For example:
Bailey (1988):
Language = pronunciation, grammar, lexis
and discourse
Larsen-Freeman (1990):
Language = form , meaning and use

BELIEFS ABOUT LANGUAGE (cont.)
(Canale and Swain 1980, Omaggio
Hadley 1993)
Being proficient in a language =
Communicative competence
(grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse
and strategic competences)

 If you believe that language is a rule-
governed system then learning a
language means learning to use it
accurately, with no grammatical
errors, which in turn leads to such
class activities as: correcting errors in
a letter.

 If you believe that language is meaning-
based then language teaching in class must
be meaningful and relevant to the students
in the class.

DESCRIBING THE LANGUAGE
(Hutchinson &Water, 1993)
• Classical or traditional grammar
Language descriptions were based on an
analysis of the role played by each word in the
sentence. The form of each word would
change according to whether it was a subject,
object, indirect object and so on.
• Structural linguistics
The language is described in terms of
syntagmatic structures which carry the
fundamental prepositions (statement,
interrogative, negative, imperative etc..

 Transformational Generative (TG)
Grammar
The grammar of a language is not the
surface structures themselves, but the
rules that enable language users to
generate the surface structures from the
deep level of meaning.
 Language variation and Register analysis
Language varies according to the
context of use.
DESCRIBING THE LANGUAGE (cont.)

DESCRIBING THE LANGUAGE (cont.)
 Functional/Notional grammar
Base on the description of language in
use instead of language forms. People use
language to carry out certain functions such
as persuading, clarifying, apologizing…
 Discourse (Rhetorical) analysis
There is more to meaning than just the
words in the sentence. The context of the
sentence is also important in creating the
meaning.

BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF LANGUAGE
Stern (1983, 1992): Social context
encompasses sociolinguistic, socio-cultural
and sociopolitical issues.
 Sociolinguistic issues are concerned with how
language is adapted to fit (or not) the social
context.
 Sociopolitical issues are concerned with how
a language of one social group (ethnic,
gender) is viewed by other social groups,
access to language and services …

BELIEFS ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF
LANGUAGE (cont.)
 Socio-cultural issues are concerned with
the interaction between language and
culture, including social values (e.g. gender
differences), attitudes (e.g., towards roles
of men and women), norms (e.g., ways of
eating and greeting), customs (e.g.,
marriage customs) and products (e.g.,
literature, art..)

BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING AND LEARNERS
The fundamental issue around learning is
your view of how people learn and the
roles that enable them to learn.
 Regarding LEARNING PROCESS, there
may be different views.

BELIEFS ABOUT LEARNING AND LEARNERS (cont.)
For example:
1- Learning is a process of problem solving
and discovery by learner – an inductive
process. The learner is viewed as the maker
of knowledge.

2- Learning can be perceived as the process
of applying received knowledge – a
deductive process. The learner is the
internalizer of knowledge.
3- Learning can be viewed as a cognitive
process, involving mental activities

4- Learning can be viewed as an affective
process, involving emotional connection
and risk-taking.
5- Learning can be viewed as a social
process, involving learning with others
(Stevick, 1998)
6- Learning can be viewed as involving
different intelligences such as visual,
kinesthetic, auditory and so on (Gardner,
1983)

Regarding ROLES OF LEARNERS
1- Learning may depend on individual effort in
which the learner works alone;
2- Learning may depend on a group effort in which
the learner may learn with or from each other;
3- Learners may be the source of expertise or
recipient of it;
4- Learners may be partners and the decision-
makers in the process or subordinates.

Regarding LEARNING FOCUS:
- Learning may be focusing on acquiring new
knowledge, or mastering skills, or developing
awareness, or learning about attitude.
- It may focus on how language works or on using
the language
- It may focus on the development of meta-
cognitive and critical thinking skills.

Some questions about learning and learners:
1- Do learners learn better:
- when they can discover their own answers or
when they are given the correct answers?
- When they feel secure or when they are
challenged?
- Individually or through interaction with each
others?
2- Is the learner an expert?
3- Is he a partner in the learning process?

BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING
Beliefs about teaching and the role of
teacher are connected to beliefs
about learning. However, sometimes
what a teacher actually does in his
classroom may contradict to what
s/he believes.

BELIEFS ABOUT TEACHING (cont.)
Some questions about teaching and the role
of teacher:
1- Is the role of teacher the expert?
2- Is the role of teacher to provide answers
or is it to provide structures for finding
answers?
3- Does the teacher make all the decisions
or does she negotiate decisions with the
learners?
4- Is the teacher a collaborator in students’
learning?
5- Is the teacher a learner?

The process of teaching can be viewed on a continuum
The teacher transmits knowledge to students
The teacher and students negotiate the knowledge and
skills and methods of learning
The teacher makes decisions about knowledge and skills
to be learnt, tells students what to learn, or provides
models or examples and expects or helps students to
internalize them
The teaching process is viewed as providing problem-
solving activities and actively helping students to
negotiate them ; learning may be viewed as a process of
shared decision making with students
The students determine the problems to be solved and
use the teacher as a language and culture resource.

A FRAMEWORK FOR ARTICULATING
YOUR BELIEFS (SUMMARY)
1- YOUR VIEW OF LANGUAGE
For example:
language is rule-governed, meaning-
based, a means of self-expression, a
means of learning about oneself and the
world, a means of getting things done

2- YOUR VIEW OF THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF
LANGUAGE
For example:
The social context of language includes
sociolinguistic issues such as adapting language
to fit the context, socio-cultural issues such as
cultural values and customs which may be in
harmony with or in conflict with those of the
learners’ culture, and sociopolitical issues such
as access to work and education.

3- YOUR VIEW OF LEARNING AND LEARNERS
For example:
• Learning is deductive or inductive process;
learning occurs in community or individually;
learning is the acquisition of knowlwdge and skills;
learning is the development of meta-cognitive and
critical thinking skills.
• Learners have affective, cognitive and social
needs; learners receive knowledge or construct
knowledge; learners follow directions or direct
their own learning.

4- YOUR VIEW OF TEACHING
For example:
• Teaching is knowledge transmission,
management of learning, providing of
learning structure, a collaborative process.
• The teacher is a decision maker,
knowledge transmitter, provider of
learning structures, collaborator, resource.

Your beliefs about Language,Learning & Teaching.ppt

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