THE ECLECTIC THEORY OF LANGUAGE

The Eclectic Approach was proposed as a reaction to the profusion of teaching methods in the
1970s and 1980s and the dogmatism often found in the application of these methods.The word
Eclectic which is an adjective means deriving things from diverse sources. It is derived from a
Greek word eklegin which means to select. A person who is interested in reading would collect
and select books from diverse resources to fulfill his needs. Same is the theme of this teaching
approach. A teacher uses number of methods to achieve his end of effective teaching.
The eclectic theory of language was advocated during the year 1990s and because important for
the educational theory of language learning. It is popular because it has the impact of good
results without much pressure on the learner. The advantage of this theory is learners have clear
vision what they are learning. Multiple tasks, high interaction, lively learning, objective
correlative, and fast results are the salient features of this method. Some learners go by their own
way of communicating strategy, they will become more confident in writing but most often they
fail in speaking. The purpose of advocating eclectic method is to connect life experiences to the
ideas presented in learning of the language. The types of learning activities teachers select are
often directly related to their experiences in the real world.
Procedure
It is difficult to put this theory in one or two sentences. It is perfect that it is not a scientific drill
method and it is neither a teaching tool for the teacher nor a learning method for the learners. It is
a whole way of doing things such as listening coordinated speaking with subsidiary elements like
pronunciation and form of the language.
Learning the language as a whole
Teacher of English widely using method of teaching is deductive way of discrimination parts of
language acquisition for instance, vocabulary and pronunciation are not two separate entities. All
the parts of language must be put together and learnt concurrently. Each item in language
teaching and learning process has to be discussed several times in due course. Learners should
grasp the chance and coordinate their abilities to strengthen learning process so that the results
are positive. Learners should show considerable amount of interest in learning the four skills
(LSRW) of the language.
Peer work/Group activity
Participants in discussion with peer, contextualize the language, present a report. Read textbooks,
story books, newspapers to bring the context in the group and have a conversation. This method
consequently imposes on learners development. Create an opportunity, reinforce materials,
arrange the learners balancing their abilities then work on the activity. The comprehensibility of
the input will be raised by the learners repetition and argument. This is minimal interference of
the teacher by giving maximum exploration to the learners. In addition shy and fear of speaking
belittle the objective and interpersonal skills will be enhanced.
Focus on the spoken English
The spoken language allows one to locate the appropriate way to get a particular objective. The
importance of introducing cultural product is as crucial to such learning of the language as
capturing and enhancing knowledge or expressing ones feelings. The problem of speaking
ranges from creating a story which has to anticipate events. Eclectic way of speaking is a
wonderful way of achieving objective of learning.
TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING ENGLISH

Teachers of English need to focus on the special teaching techniques. There are many methods of
teaching English out of which Eclectic way of teaching include positive objectives of known
methods and principles of Eclectic method. Eclectic method is a popular method these days
because students are heterogeneous and versatile level intelligent in the classroom. The value of
teaching technique decisively suggested for these students specially. However, some teachers are
very sensitive of using various methods; they find particular method is comfortable using in the
classroom without taking much trouble. Teacher ought to use all the principles of language
teaching including cognition and linguistic objectives.
Nature of activity
A technique of teaching through eclectic way is a rich combination of multiple activities. The
salient features of approach include
a) Participatory Approach b) Communicative Approach c) Situational Approach
TEACHERS ROLES AND LEARNER NEEDS
The present curriculum is focused on low level grammar and oriental context of culture texts
which may not bring out whole linguistic competence of the students if they are to be trained for
global market leaders.
The text is a just learning about grammatical system of English. The students enjoy
communicative and participatory approach of learning English. If teacher does not pay attention
to the need of respective student, the whole teaching practice is useless. The above said
approaches have to be inculcated among the learners of English language specially (specific
domain i.e. engineering, doctors etc) graduates.
Roles plays are important practice of learning in the ESL classroom because Participation in
role-play allows students to make decisions, and through the feedback he or she receives, he sees
the results of his actions, and can therefore learn how to adjust his words and actions to produce
more likeable results. Because role plays can involve, both in emotional and cognitive ways, they
can also be used to help people understand others, and the positions of others. For example, a
person can role play a position with which they disagree, to better understand that position. It
should be noted however that role playing does not automatically confer these benefits
immediately.
Another part of participatory technique is group discussion. It helps to combine individual
strengths of the group members and hence has a set of varied skill sets applied in the decisionmaking process. It always means enhanced collective understanding of the course of action to be
taken after the decision is taken.
Disadvantages of eclectic approach
The main criticism of the eclecticism is that "it does not offer any guidance on what basis and
by what principles aspects of different methods can be selected and combined."
The problem inherent in an eclectic method centers in the tendency to combine contradicting
elements and the lack of organizing principles to guide instruction.