Modern Methods of Teaching English Language - Essay Example

Modern Methods of Teaching English Language By Thesis ment It is impossible to define one modern method that will be efficient in teaching English. Modern methods of English teaching can be used partially and in combination with each other as they have complementary nature. Research Questions The essay seeks to outline the most modern methods of teaching English language to students and assess them critically. The questions of effectiveness, reliability, and the conditions of each method application will be answered in the paper. The purpose of the essay is to determine the most optimal methods for learning English. Introduction Any language is the system that changes incredibly fast so it is extremely important to keep up with these changes to teach it successfully. Moreover, English is one of the most widespread languages of the planet serving as the means of politics, business, and economics communication for world leaders. With the help of the technological innovation and Internet English vocabulary enriches with new words every day. However, there are also degrading process in the language, some grammar rules get redundant and there appear new on their place. Therefore, teaching English demands close attention to all the changes. Every teacher knows that despite general requirements he/she must elaborate personal approach to the teaching and choose among the numerous methods. It is possible to base the choice on the experience received at school or University, or follow already existing methods. There exist numerous techniques of teaching English Language. Some of them become outdated with the development of new technologies, and some get substituted with more efficient. It is hardly possible to choose one method that could be applied for every situation as each technique has its own purpose. It is necessary to know advantages and disadvantages of each method and be able to utilize them according to the situation. Content 1. Thesis 2. Introduction 3. Overview of the Changes 4. Communicative Method 5. Content-based Method 6. Whole Language Method 7. Conclusion There are numerous innovations in English language teaching which appeared in the past century. Many schools, teachers, and applied linguists strived to find the optimal and the most efficient methods of language teaching basing on their understanding of the learning mechanisms. Traditional methods were mostly concentrated on teacher`s explanation of the material, practicing of lexical and grammatical material, and skills development. Modern methods of English language teaching are more student-oriented comparing to the old methods, they encourage students to learn rather than make them learning. A student becomes involved in a half-natural process of interaction with a techer. Redundant teacher`s explanations, high speed of the lesson were substituted by student`s motivation to interact, talk, and to do the tasks at affordable speed (Scrivener, 1998, 19). The appearance of Communication Method, one of the most recent innovations, was expected and highly needed. In the 1950s one of the most prominent American linguists emphasized the necessity to take into account “the creativity and uniqueness of each speaker” (Rodgers, 2014, 82). There are also two major tendencies which influenced the appearance of new methods of teaching in the twentieth century. First is connected to the enormous global widespread of English in all the spheres of modern life. As a result, English has become a lingua franca of the world business, politics, and economics and these demanded creation of absolutely new language teaching methods relevant to many nationalities and applicable for various goals. The second reason is inner changes of teacher`s paradigm and renovation of the practices (Rodgers, 2014, 84). This led to appearance of the new Communicative Method of teaching, the method which was able to respond to the needs of globalization and satisfied the teachers as well. The essence of the method lies in the creating communicative tasks for the learner. These tasks presuppose stimulated situations in which a learner has to apply his/her communicative potential (Mukalel, 2007).Moreover, communicative approach underlines the essence of the language- communication. It is important to teach the learner that language which could be utilized by him in his daily tasks (Mukalel, 2007). The necessity to co use the target language for interaction was the primary techniques described by Nunan (2001, 64). He also concentrated on the power of authentic texts for language learning as well as taking into account the process of learning itself. The linguist paid special attention for integration of the learner`s personal experience to the process of learning and utilization of the acquired English Language communication skills in the real life (Nunan, 2011, 67). In most cases communicative methods can be described as any technique or approach that encourages learner’s direct communication. Group discussions, interviews, communicative plays, pair discussions, debates are the most used forms of communicative method tasks. In conclusion it is necessary to note that the method has certain disadvantages. The success of the learner depends much on the possibility to attend group lessons and interact with as many speakers and learners as possible. In order to elaborate strong communicative skills it is necessary to combine this method with reading authentic texts, doing exercises on lexical and grammar material, and communicating outside the classroom. For teaching English as a second language contend-based approach is utilized alongside with communicative method. This method presupposes providing learners with substantial and meaningful content which evokes natural interest. It opposes the principal of “general literacy and “general language”(Sticht, 1997, 1). This method uses the natural interest to the subject as a driving force of learning. It is possible to apply contend-based instruction in forms of sheltered and adjunct lessons. Sheltered lessons require participations of two teachers. The first teacher serves as a specialist in certain field of study, and gives the class a lecture on a specific subject. Later the second ESL teachers control students` understanding of the material by reviewing it. The teachers can have a common lesson or their time can be divided. Adjunct method is called “adjunct” because students are taught English as a means of preparation for general classes. This method is sometimes used in colleges, where adjunct classes are taught during summer (Davis). One of the most persuasive arguments for this method is based on the explanation of the cognition process. Thus, for cognition the knowledge and the information are considered equally valuable along with process of learning, thinking, communicating. For example, it was proved that comprehension enhances cognition for the readers which know why they are reading specific information. Thus, random texts reading for comprehension does not give such high results. When a student spends most of his time and capacities on decoding the information of the text instead of understanding of the meaning, the effectiveness of comprehension decreases significantly. For effectiveness enhancement it is required that the process of interpretation was automatic and subconscious. Therefore, the content acquires special meaning in learning (Sticht). The scientists aiming to invent artificial intelligent also prove that information plays crucial role in human`s cognition. These experiments resulted in comparing human mind to the computer. In such perspective brain has long-term memory that is limitless and short-term memory that is restricted by capacities as it cannot hold too much information at once. This long-term memory requires information from the long-term memory to perform such tasks as reading, comprehending, talking, and reasoning which happens at specific moment. However, if the processes of short-term memory become automatic, it allows enlarging its capacities. The method was invented during the World War II, where there existed the necessity to teach the new recruits literacy. It was required understanding basic information about military life not spending much time as the period of preparation was very limited. The texts resembled the materials for fourth grade pupils, but the content was very functional. The soldiers were taught about Private Pete who was forced to leave his farm to join the army. The events of the story were typical for the recruiters and it did not require special preparation to understand already known words such as “train”, “farm”. This allowed improving the effectiveness of the course, and the recruiters achieved very high graduates ratings. The success was explained by the accent made on recognition processes development (Shanahan & Neumann, 1997). This method proves to be very effective; however, it requires long time, which is limited for adults. Whereas for children this method is less effective as it presupposes concentration on certain sphere of knowledge while children are supposed to achieve much general information for “storing the long-term memory”. Adults can be trained in specific sphere directions according to their job requirements, which will increase their motivation in learning (Stich). This method, however, cannot be used separately, and its combination with communicative method can give even more promising results, as these two methods embrace most of the goals of teaching English Another modern method of English language teaching that is worth attention is a whole language method. This method has almost the same justification as the previous one: the learning is based on evoking natural interest in students. People are taught language and literature as a whole not with their help as a part of it. Literature texts are studied in full volume in spite of studying partially. Traditionally, kids are required special pieces of information for limited periods and assessed according to their skills. In whole language method children (or adults) plan their curriculum together with teachers which allow them to be equally motivated in the process. This method aims to turn the students into active readers and writers, and help to elaborate the habit of learning instead of practicing reading and writing skills solely. This process teaches any student love learning and continue learning(Lamme, 1992). In theme studies of whole language methods students are taught with the help of literature, not the textbooks. Kids have to spend much longer time on the subject and concentrate on the minimum details. Students are involved into a certain subject discussion and are encouraged to look for the information in all the possible media such as Television, cinema, theatre, literature, and art. For instance, with the help of poetry it is possible to reach aesthetic dimension of the topic under consideration. However, whole language method requires access of most students to the large amount of information. Flexible timetable is also optimal for those who use thematic studying as it allows accessing information to the desired extent (Lamme, 1992). For writing skills development close studying of the books is also needed. Students can correct their stylistic and orthographical mistakes while learning how to write from respectable authors. So when you become an author you are motivated to know more how the authors write, which devices they use. Thus, students are taught being demanding readers rather than learning how to read. After finishing books they engage in the opinions discussion in groups. They are also expected to express their understanding of the text in a written form (Lamme, 1992). In the recommendation for the teachers who would like to use whole language method as a leading method, special accent is made on media center, which is crucial for effective learning. This can be regarded as a disadvantage of the method as media center presupposes much investment in the studying. Moreover, this method is more relevant for the older auditory as teaching children many games are usually utilized by teachers whereas this method is makes emphasis on personal work. Globalization processes made English Language one of the most popular languages of the world. It has resulted in teaching methods development and modernization. Inner necessarily to update teaching techniques united professional linguists in attempt to apply new approaches to learning the language. Communicational method appeared as a result of opposition to situational method of learning. The method places communication as the primary task of teaching and exploits communicative tasks to achieve the most effective results. Content-based approach utilizes inner person`s enthusiasm and interest towards certain subject to teach basic language skills. Whole language method uses literature and other means of art to evoke interest and teach students to become active readers and writers. Every method has its pluses and minuses and can help to reach partial targets in teaching whereas their combination will help making the process of teaching more effective. Abstract I have chosen this topic as English is it difficult to choose the appropriate method of teaching English basing only on the experience from your personal studies. For me it is important to know the most recent innovation in English language methodology and be able to utilize the necessary method a relevant situation. References Davis, S “Content Based Instruction in EFL Contexts”. Retrieved from: http://iteslj.org/Articles/Davies-CBI.html Nunman, D & Carter, R 2001, The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages , Cambridge University Press, London. Lamme, L 1992, “Whole Language in an Elementary School Library Media Center”. ERIC Digest. Retrieved from: http://www.ericdigests.org/1992-3/library.htm Mukalel, J 2007, English Language Teaching, New Delhi, Discovering Publishing House. Scrivener, J 1998, Learning Teaching, London, Macmillan, 432. Sticht, T 1997, “The Theory behind Content-Based Instruction”. Connecting Research and Practice. Vol. 1, Retrieved from: http://www.ncsall.net/index.html@id=433.html Shanahan, T. & Neuman, S. B 1997, “Literacy research that makes a difference”,  Reading Research Quarterly, 32, pp. 202-210. Read More