2/Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning
Language teaching is a collective term which denotes all
educational theory and practice concerning instruction in both the native
and the foreign language. Different approaches to the teaching of foreign
languages have been applied all over the world in the last century. These
approaches have been based on contrastive analysis and some have been
worked out perhaps with no attention to linguistic principles.
The Communicative Approach
Three linguistic phenomena lie behind the appearance of communicative
language teaching approach:
1. Work on ESP (English for Specific Purposes).
2. The notional and functional categories developed by Wilkins.
3. Developments in discourse analysis
The communicative method adopts three-fold stages of learning
procedure:
1. The pre-task stage:
The learners are prepared (warmed up) to deal with the task. Matters
such as the purpose of the task and the learners roles are explained.
Moreover, new vocabulary or new language items which the learners will
need when they handle the task are also explained in this stage.
2. The task stage:
The learners deal with the task (in pairs or in small groups) while the
teacher is going around the groups, guiding and helping them when help
is needed.