Approaches to language teaching - Unit 15

The main purpose of this unit was to show us which are the different approaches that are used in language teaching. To start getting familiar with this we have the definition for approach that is referred  to our view of ho language leaning takes place. The best example of methods and approaches id the communicative one since it is a tool to communicative meaning that best focuses on fluency.

Some approaches have had a great influence of English language teaching practices and materials. Here we have some of them:

- Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)

In this  approach grammatical structures and functions are the most important aspects of language.

- Lexical Approach

Vocabulary is the most important aspect of language, it consist on individual words and different kinds of chunks.

- Functional Approach

Functions are the most important part of language.

- Communicative approach

Communication is the key point of language.

- Grammar-Translation

Language is made up of grammatical rules.

- Total Physical Response

Grammatical structures and vocabulary are the most important aspects of language.

- Guided Discovery

Language has patterns of meaning and use in which learners learn language best if they work out patterns and rules of language.

- Contest-Based learning

Lexical, functional areas and skills are all important.

Those are the approaches that a teacher can use in the classroom, taking into account the different aspects of learners, some of these are more developed in some areas than others. Also there can be  a mixture of some of them according to the teacher and learners.

References:

The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3 By Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness and Melanie Williams