Overview on the Techniques, Principles,

Approaches and Methods in ELT

The actions are the techniques and the thoughts are

the principles. It is important to recognize that
methods link thoughts and actions because teaching
is not entirely about one or the other.
-You have thoughts about your subject matter; - what
language is - what culture is • Your students; and -
how they are as learners - how it is they learn •
Yourself - as a teacher - what you can do to help your
students learn
-It is very important for you to become aware of the
thoughts that guide your actions in the classroom
Principles of Language Teaching and Learning
-Everyone knows that being a good teacher means
giving positive feedback to students and being
The Principles of Communicative Language Teaching
concerned about their affective side on their feelings.
(CLT)
1. CLT means to teach language learners to engage
- Learning to listen to themselves is part of lessening
in real communication.
their reliance on the teacher. The teacher will not
2. Language teachers should move away from
always be there. Also, they will be encouraged to form
teaching knowledge of grammar/structure and expose
criteria for correcting their mistakes—for monitoring
learners to the competent use of language.
their own progress
3. Competent use of language needs a real context or
- Observing a class will give you a greater
setting to allow learners to negotiate and interact on
understanding of a particular method and will give you
what is heard or read. The Principles of
more opportunity to reflect on your own practice than
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
if you were to simply read a description of it.
4. Effective communication involves fluency in
speaking and writing as well as accuracy of use.
- Approach refers to “theories about the nature of
5. The Communicative classroom is learner-centered
language and language learning that serve as the
where students become more active, thinking for
source of practices and principles in language
themselves and learning from other learners.
teaching.”It offers a model of language competence. It
describes how people acquire their knowledge of the
.- The Eight Principles of Language Learn-
language and makes statements about conditions
1. The Learner-Centered Principle
which will promote successful language learning
-Learners can learn a language best when they are
treated as individuals with their own needs and
- Method is the practical realization of an approach. It
interests. The teacher should design activities which
includes various procedures and techniques as part of
interest the majority if not all of the learners. These
their standard fare. Procedure is an ordered
activities are varied and novel since every class is
sequence of techniques which can be described in
composed of individuals with different cognitive,
terms such as first you do this, then you do that…
affective and social maturity; learning styles; and
Smaller than a method and bigger than technique
aptitudes.
2. The Active Involvement Principle
-Technique: a common technique when using video
-Learners learn best when are provided with
material is called “silent viewing.” This is where the
opportunities to participate in communicative use of
teacher plays the video with no sound. Silent viewing
the target language in a wide range of activities.
is a single activity rather than a sequence, and as
Learners will learn how to use language purposely
such is a technique rather than a whole procedure. A
only by being provided with a variety of opportunities
term that is also used in discussions about teaching is
to do so
“model” which is used to describe typical procedures,
3. The Immersion Principle
usually for teachers in training. Such models offer
-Learners learn best when they are exposed to
abstractions of these procedures, designed to guide
communicative data, which are comprehensible and
teaching practice.
relevant to their own needs and interests. Relevant
communicative data means exposing them to different situations. A number of strategies can be used to
language functio support increased interaction, including cooperative
4. The Focusing Principle learning, study buddies, project-based learning,
-Learners learn best when they focus deliberately on authentic writing and speaking tasks, and one-on-one
various language forms, skills and strategies in order teacher/student interactions
to support the process of language acquisition. 3. Increase Thinking/Study Skills (Cummin’s Theory)
Because of the relatively limited time that is available -An important aspect of modern educational practice
in school language learning, language forms as well involves including strategies to develop more
as skills and strategies should be given focus advanced, higher order thinking skills as student’s
5. The Socio-cultural Principle language proficiency increases. For example, the
-Learners learn a language best when they are Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach
exposed to socio-cultural data and direct experience (CALLA) includes asking students higher order
of the culture embedded within the target language. thinking questions (e.g. what would happen if…?)
Language is linked with the culture which they reflect. modeling thinking language by thinking aloud,
The teacher’s job is to build a bridge between the explicitly teaching and reinforcing study skills and test
learner’s own culture and that of the target language taking strategies and maintaining high expectations
community. for all students
6. The Awareness Principle 4. Use the Native Language of the Students (several
-Learners learn a language best when they become theories including Krashen and Cummins)
aware of the role and nature of language and of -Research has shown that use of primary language
culture. Language activities can enable learners to supports both content and second language learning.
become aware of the power of language as a means Instructors should not be afraid to let students use
of gaining access to other people’s ideas and ways of their primary language in the classroom nor resist
thinking using that language themselves to further instructional
7. The Assessment Principle goals. Students should never be reprimanded for
-Learners learn a language best when they are using a language other than English, but rather
provided with appropriate feedback about their encouraged and rewarded for their attempts to use
progress. Teachers should encourage learners to their new language
become involved in the assessment process.
(self-assessment and peer assessment THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
8. The Responsibility Principle
-Learners learn a language best when they are Behaviorist Theory Of Language Acquisition
provided with opportunities to manage their own One of the earliest scientific explanations of language
learning. Teachers should foster the development of acquisition was provided by Skinner (1957). As one of
the pioneers of behaviorism, he accounted for
learning how-to-learn skills
language development using environmental influence,
through imitation, reinforcement, and conditioning.
- General Principles for Teaching ELL Student- In this view, children learn words and grammar
1. Increase Comprehensibility (Krashen) primarily by mimicking the speech they hear and
-This principle involves the ways in which instructors receiving positive feedback for correct usage.
can make content more understandable to students. Skinner argued that children learn language based on
With beginning to intermediate ELLs, this includes behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating
words with meanings. Correct utterances are
providing as many non-verbal cues as possible by
positively reinforced when the child realizes the
using pictures, real objects, demonstrations, gestures communicative value of words and phrases.
and intonation cues. As students’ proficiency For example, when the child says ‘milk’ and the
develops, additional teaching strategies include mother smiles and gives her some. As a result, the
building from language that is already understood child will find this outcome rewarding, enhancing the
(prior knowledge), using graphic organizers, hands-on child’s language development (Ambridge & Lieven,
learning activities, and cooperative learning or peer 2011).
Over time, through repetition and reinforcement, they
teaching techniques. General Principles for Teaching
refine their linguistic abilities. Critics argue this theory
ELL Student doesn’t fully explain the rapid pace of language
2. Increase Interaction (Swain) acquisition nor the creation of novel sentences.
-Increasing interaction increases students’
opportunities to use their language skills for
communication and to negotiate meaning in real-life
Chomsky Theory Of Language Development
However, Skinner’s account was soon heavily
criticized by Noam Chomsky, the world’s most famous
linguist to date.
In the spirit of the cognitive revolution in the 1950s,
Chomsky argued that children would never acquire
the tools needed for processing an infinite number of
sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was
dependent on language input alone.
Noam Chomsky introduced the nativist theory of
language development, emphasizing the role of
innate structures and mechanisms in the human
brain. Key points of Chomsky’s theory include:
Language Acquisition Device (LAD): Chomsky
proposed that humans have an inborn biological
capacity for language, often termed the LAD, which
predisposes them to acquire language.
Universal Grammar: He suggested that all human
languages share a deep structure rooted in a set of
grammatical rules and categories. This “universal
grammar” is understood intuitively by all humans.
Poverty of the Stimulus: Chomsky argued that the
linguistic input received by young children is often
insufficient (or “impoverished”) for them to learn the
complexities of their native language solely through
imitation or reinforcement. Yet, children rapidly and
consistently master their native language, pointing to
inherent cognitive structures.
Critical Period: Chomsky, along with other linguists,
posited a critical period for language acquisition,
during which the brain is particularly receptive to
linguistic input, making language learning more
efficient.