English Within Reach

Social constructivism 

The origins of the constructivist view of learning have their roots in the work of Piaget. Piaget’s view of the growing child was as what he called a ‘lone scientist’. This description gives an image of a child alone, exploring the immediate environment, and drawing conclusions about the nature and structure of the world. Social constructivism adds an important dimension to the constructivist domain. In social constructivist theory, emphasis is placed upon interaction between the learner and others.The others can come in many forms – it is the dimension of social interaction that is crucial to the social constructivists.The main proponents of this branch of constructivism are Vygotsky, a Russian whose work was carried out at the start of the twentieth century but not widely available in the West until many years later; and Bruner, an American publishing his work in the second half of the twentieth century. 

Social constructivism gives a high priority to language in the process of intellectual development. Dialogue becomes the vehicle by which ideas are considered, shared and developed. The dialogue is often with a more knowledgeable other, but this need not always
be the case. Dialogue with peers can be of equal value. Prior knowledge, naturally, has a part
to play. It is an individual’s prior and current knowledge that forms the basis of any contribution
to a dialogue. It is with reference to existing knowledge and understanding (schemas) that new
ideas and understanding can be constructed in the course of dialogue.When we consider the
more knowledgeable other, it is easy to assume that this person will be a teacher or a parent,
but this need not be the case. More knowledgeable need not imply older nor in a position of responsibility for learning. It is very often the case that learning will take place in very different environments. Most learning does not take place in school.Any social interaction with anybody 7 at all may well lead to learning.The building and exchange of thoughts and ideas which takes 8 place in the course of a discussion, in any context at all, is likely for at least one of the 9 participants, and often for both or all of them, to lead to a greater understanding of, or insight 40 into, the topic of the conversation. 41 

role of the more knowledgeable other in formal learning situations is usually taken by a teacher.The teacher has the role of stimulating dialogue and maintaining its momentum. In a very real way, the teacher engages groups and individuals in dialogue and supports the development of understanding.The undertaking of this role, in a planned way, has a particular name and is known as ‘scaffolding’.To fully understand the concept of scaffolding, we need to first look at an aspect of Vygotsky’s work, which is the notion of a zone of proximal development (ZPD). 

The zone of proximal development is a refreshingly simple description of something which many teachers and other adults understand and work with. It is an idea from Vygotsky’s work which has impacted on practice over the last 20 years or so as more importance has been given to the notion of differentiation in teaching. 

The zone of proximal development is a theoretical space of understanding which is just above the level of understanding of a given individual. It is the area of understanding into which a learner will move next. In the zone of proximal development, a learner is able to work effectively, but only with support.The zone is necessarily different for each individual child.The process of learning involves moving into and across the zone and looking forward to the next level of understanding, which will involve a similar journey through a newly created zone. Sewell (1990) explains it as ‘a point at which a child has partly mastered a skill but can act more effectively with the assistance of a more skilled adult or peer’. 

Passing through the zone of proximal development is a process which can be aided by the intervention of another. A teacher can fulfil this role and so can a range of other people or materials. In planning work for children, a teacher needs to take into account the current state of the understanding of the children in question, and plan accordingly and appropriately. 

Scaffolding is the process of giving support to learners at the appropriate time and at the appropriate level of sophistication to meet the needs of the individual. Scaffolding can be presented in many ways: through discussion – a good socially constructive approach; through the provision of materials – perhaps supplying practical apparatus to help in the solution of simple problems in arithmetic; or by designing tasks which match and give help appropriate to the individual – a list of words given to help in the process of completing an exercise designed to assist understanding, or a list of reminders concerning the process of undertaking the task in question; a writing frame to support a particular style of written piece is also an example. 

Working collaboratively, in pairs or small groups, is an obvious socially constructive approach to learning.The converse of this would be working in a silent classroom, where contact with others is discouraged.There are times when quiet individual working is useful and important, and teachers are able to describe times when a child should be encouraged to work quietly and alone. As a mainstay approach to teaching and learning, this would totally ignore all that we know about socially constructed learning. 

Metacognition 

‘Cognition’ is a global term which seeks to cover all of the mental activities that serve the 40 acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of knowledge. Cognition is the ability of the brain to think, 41 

Situated learning and authentic activity 

‘Situated learning’ refers to the fact that all learning takes place in a context.The context may or may not be familiar to the learner. If the context is unfamiliar to the learner, learning will not necessarily proceed smoothly. 

Situated learning (Lave and Wenger 1991), in part, suggests that skills, knowledge and understanding which are learnt, and even mastered, in one context may not necessarily be transferred successfully to another. Another aspect of situated learning, which is more relevant here, is the notion that learning can be situated in social and cultural settings, and that if a learning activity falls beyond the cultural understanding of the learner then learning is likely, at best, to be less successful than if it had been situated in a more familiar setting. For example, giving young children the task of investigating the pros and cons of fox-hunting when their cultural setting is a deprived inner-city area where contact with the countryside, with animals, domestic or wild, and the emotions associated with the discovery of ravaged lambs or roosting hens are alien to them, is very unlikely, without exceptionally detailed and sympathetic introductions and the provision of first-hand experience, to lead to good quality learning experiences. In order to introduce the children to the ideas of making a case, and arguing for particular points of view, it would be far more reasonable to invite them to consider something within their cultural domain. The same would almost certainly be true in reverse: children brought up in a rural environment with little experience of city life might well find it difficult to understand, and learn from, notions concerning overcrowded housing estates and parents fearful of letting their children play and roam freely. 

There is a link between the idea of learning being situated and the need for authentic learning tasks. Much has been written on this matter (see, for example, McFarlane 1997).Authentic tasks are ‘tasks which pupils can relate to their own experience inside and outside school; tasks which an experienced practitioner would undertake’ (Selinger 2001). When learning is made up of authentic tasks, there is a greater probability of engagement with the task and also with the information and ideas involved with the task.Authentic tasks are likely to hold the attention and interest of the children and lead to a deeper level of engagement than with another similar but ‘nonauthentic’ or, at least, less authentic task.This links closely with the ideas put forward by the sociocultural learning theorists. Bruner (1996), Brown et al. (1989) and others support the need for culturally linked and authentic learning tasks.This has the desirable effect of making the difference between learning in school and ‘out-of-school learning’ less well defined. Children working with new ideas in a familiar context are far more likely to engage with the ideas than if the same ideas are presented in an alien context. 

to process and store information, and to solve problems. Cognition is a high level behaviour which is thought, in many respects, to be unique to humans. Obviously the role of cognition in the processes of learning is crucial. ‘Metacognition’ refers to the idea of an individual’s considering, being aware of and understanding their own mental (cognitive) processes and ways of learning. It is cognition about cognition. An individual’s awareness of their own thought processes will have a bearing on the way that they view their own learning and is likely, with encouragement, to lead to recognition of the ways in which they might learn most effectively. 

Metacognition: a definition 

Metacognitive knowledge is the knowledge that an individual has about their own cognition, which can be used to consider and to control their cognitive processes.To work metacognitively is to consider and take active control of the processes involved in learning and thinking as they are happening. 

The term ‘metacognition’ is most closely associated with the psychologist John Flavell (1976; 1977). He tells us that metacognition consists of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences or regulation. Metacognitive knowledge is knowledge about cognitive processes, which an individual has come to understand, and can be used to control mental processes. ‘Metacognition refers to one’s knowledge concerning one’s cognitive processes and products or anything related to them . . . metacognition refers, among other things, to the active monitoring . . . regulation and orchestration of these processes’ (Flavell 1976). Brown (1987) offers a simpler version of this when he says that ‘Metacognition refers loosely to one’s knowledge and control of [one’s] own cognitive system.’ 

An example of an approach to learning spelling which is influenced by ideas from metacognition involves talking explicitly about how to learn them. In the past, at least in the experience of many of us, teachers have been known to give the instruction:‘Write down these spellings and learn them for a test next week.’This is all well and good for some children, but for others it represents an insurmountable problem – how do they learn them? We all have very different approaches to tasks of this type and some children will find a way which helps them to learn lists of spellings, but many others will not. If attention is drawn to the fact that there are ways of approaching such a task and that different individuals may find different approaches more suitable, then the door has been opened to the world of developing strategies for accomplishing particular desired outcomes.This is an example of metacognitive awareness. One child may say something like this:‘I just photograph it and then I know it.’Another may say that they can only learn the spellings by repeatedly saying them aloud to a mum or dad. Another might talk about writing and rewriting the list; yet another might well say that they have no approach and are at a loss when it comes to attempting to learn them.As teachers we cannot say which strategy will suit which child, but we can provide opportunities for a group to pool ideas and discuss them.Then children can be encouraged to experiment with different 

approaches. One tried and reasonably successful approach to learning spellings or foreign 1 language vocabulary is the ‘Look-Say-Cover-Write-Check’ method. This involves mental 2 activity and the necessity to hold a spelling in short-term memory as well as immediate feedback 3 being provided. Once introduced, this method may or may not suit a particular child. It is hoped 4 that exposure to this method, and discussion of its purpose and value, at the same time as 5 considering possible alternatives, will allow children to decide, in a metacognitive mode, how 6 to approach the task in question. 7 

In a related example, sometimes children are completely lost when it comes to undertaking 8 simple mental calculation. Individual approaches to mental calculation vary widely and 9 some approaches seem complicated and difficult to one person but clear and simple to another. 10 The Cockcroft Report (DES 1982) found that the ways in which adults undertook mental 11arithmetic tasks varied enormously and that idiosyncratic approaches were very widespread. 12 This is wholly acceptable if arriving at the correct answer is the prime objective, but for young 13 children, trying to find their way with mental calculation, some insight into their own 14 approaches and processes is very important.This insight into how to think in what are, for some, 15 difficult abstract terms is metacognitive, and very helpful in the process of learning how to 16 undertake the task in question.Teachers can encourage approaches to develop metacognitive 17 awareness in simple ways; for example, by asking children to describe their own approaches, by giving value to the identification of the methods and processes followed by different individuals. Instead of being satisfied with a correct answer, a teacher can probe below the surface to discover the approach taken. This is also helpful when incorrect responses to mental calculation are given.The process of sharing and experimenting with different approaches to carrying out mental calculations in an environment that is safe and supportive can, in a socially constructive way, lead to individuals developing both a fuller understanding of their own processes of thinking and, in this case, an understanding of how to tackle particular tasks. 

A consideration of which approaches best suit an individual can be of immense value at times of ‘routine’ learning – such times as learning spellings, practising methods in maths or other factual content which needs to be internalised – but it is possibly more valuable when revision is undertaken for exams. Knowing how to best approach learning of this type can be considered by teachers and it is important to encourage learners, at every level, to discover how they learn and what suits them individually. 

Wray and Lewis (1997) single out four aspects of constructivist learning theory which they consider to be of paramount importance: 

■ Learning is a process of interaction between what is known and what is to be learnt. 

■ Learning is a social process. 6 

• Learning is a situated process. 
• Learning is a metacognitive process. 8 9 

From these four aspects of constructivist theory they go on to formulate four principles for 40 teaching: 

• Learners need enough previous knowledge and understanding to enable them to learn new things; they need help making links with new and previous knowledge explicit. 
• Provision should be made for social interaction and discussion in groups of varying sizes, both with and without the teacher. 
• Meaningful contexts for learning are very important; it must be remembered that what is meaningful for a teacher is not necessarily meaningful for the child. 
• Children’s awareness of their own thought processes should be promoted. 

All of what has gone before in this chapter points, more or less, to what should be a very important element of learning: that is, mental activity. Mental activity should be at the centre of our teaching methods and can be encouraged in a variety of ways.When dealing with new experiences, learning seems to proceed well if the points above are in place andif there is mental activity on the part of the learner. 

Mental activity 

Learning is not something that others can undertake on behalf of learners. It is something that learners must do for themselves.Adults – whether teachers, trainers or parents – cannot assume that if they exert thought and effort, directed towards teaching, then learning will be the inevitable result. Learning requires effort on the part of the learner, and without some effort and some mental activity, it is very unlikely that learning will take place. In the context of constructivist theory, learning is an active, not a passive, activity.Teachers continually put into place situations in which learning is likely, but without the required effort and activity on the part of the would-be learner, the outcome is not at all certain. Howe (1999) tells us that: 

Learning always necessitates mental activities being undertaken by the individual learner . . . Learning does not always have to be deliberate, but it does always require the engagement of mental processes. The mental activities of individual students form a particularly powerful source of influence on what is actually learned. 

We are also told that:‘The role of the teacher is to recognise the importance of mental activity 

in learning’ (Chastain 1971). 

Engagement 

Everything about the constructivist approach to learning, in a simple and practical way, points towards the importance of learners getting as close to the material content of what it is hoped they will learn as possible and then ‘doing’ something with it. By undertaking actions and activities, mental or physical, which centre on the facts, the concepts or the skills in question, learners are in a position to move forward in their learning.This ‘closeness’ is possible in a wide range of different ways and is sometimes referred to as ‘engagement’. 

For children to understand new information, they must become actively involved with it; 1 that is, they need to engage with it.There is a five-stage model for learning, put forward by a 2 group of Australian teachers and academics, which puts engagement at the start of the process 3 of learning; which takes a wholly constructivist approach; and within which the importance 4 of the individual and of activity are stressed. As we have seen, from the constructivist point of 5 view, learning is not a passive process and so, with reference to what is known about effective 6 learning, and with due attention paid to the notion of engagement, it is possible to map out 7 approaches to learning that encompass the best and most effective of what is currently known 8 about learning. 9 

The five-stage model (Reid et al. 1989) sets out a route which, if followed, is likely to provide 10 the conditions required for learning to result: 11 

• engagement 
• exploration 

12 13 14 

■ transformation 15 

• presentation 
• reflection. 

16 17 18 

Engagement is described as ‘the time during which students acquire information and engage 19 in an experience that provides the basis for, or content of, their ensuing learning’ (Reid et al. 20 1989).The next stage in the model – exploration – is closely related to the stage of engagement. 1 This stage can be an open-ended process, where children follow their instincts, but possibly a 2 more profitable approach for teachers to take with their classes is to set short tasks which develop 3 both engagement and exploration.These tasks are designed to give the child an overview of 4 what is contained in the information under consideration and may take many forms, including 5 reading and writing tasks; finding things out and answering questions; more manipulative 6 activities; matching and comparing; drawing or compiling charts or diagrams; discussing and 7 arguing, in pairs or in groups; and many other diverse and related tasks. 8 

Transformation is the stage in which information with which the child has engaged, and has 9 explored, might be reconfigured into a form which allows for presentation (the next stage) but, 30 importantly, transformed into a format which will, from the teacher’s point of view, enable 1 learning objectives to be met. From the point of view of the child, certain questions will now 2 be able to be answered. 3 

Transformation and the resultant presentation is not the end of the process.Time to reflect 4 upon what has been undertaken, the process and the content, gives the opportunity for 5 internalisation, and for a deeper level of understanding to be developed. Reflection can also take 6 many forms. One common approach is to ask children to give a short presentation/explanation 7 of what they have been doing and what they have learnt.This can take a variety of different 8 formats, prepared for a variety of different audiences – a poster to display, a newspaper front 9 page, a multimedia presentation, or something as simple as a 30-second explanation of what 40 they have been doing in the lesson, possibly including what they have learnt. This idea has 41 

become a part of the plenary session which now forms an integral part of lessons, especially concerning literacy and numeracy, in British primary schools. 

Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987) describe a model of the writing process which they term ‘knowledge transformation’. Knowledge transformation can be seen as the reshaping or reconstruction of information in order to answer certain questions, to help meet particular learning objectives and to assist the learner in the process of coming to understand the content of their learning activity.This model is characterised by the writer alone accomplishing what is normally accomplished through the medium of social dialogue. Knowledge is considered and ‘worked upon’ by the individual – engagement takes place. This dialogue, which forms an important element of the thinking that underpins social constructivism, is seen as the medium through which learning takes place.A child working alone cannot take part in an actual dialogue, which has the possibility of allowing engagement with the knowledge and ideas of the topic in question, but by undertaking a process of knowledge transformation, a similar process may come into play and effective learning may be possible. 

Encouraging engagement 

We have seen that without engagement with the content of an activity, effective learning is far less likely to be the result of anything that teachers ask children to do. It can be surmised that an important element of the role of the teacher is to encourage engagement, since without some measure of involvement with information and ideas, and the undertaking of activity centred on the content (Bereiter and Scardamalia’s knowledge transformation, for example), there is a greatly reduced opportunity for effective learning to take place, especially the deep learning which is the aim of most teaching situations. 

There are many effective ways of encouraging children to engage with their work.Taking into account the prior knowledge of the children, the level of difficulty, the social and cultural context, and the general level of interest of the subject matter will all help with the need for engagement. 

Certain guidelines can apply to the planning of lessons. Lessons: 

• need a clear focus and goals, with explicit learning objectives; 
• need to be based upon the pupils’ existing knowledge; 
• need to be set in an appropriate context; 
• need to include scope for social interaction and for activity; 
• need to be planned in such a way that they aim to move the pupils’ learning forward (across the ZPD). 

The points above can all be traced back to what is known about the way that we learn, and to the work of many psychologists and educationalists in the field of learning. It would be unrealistic to suggest that, if all of the above were in place, then effective learning is certain to 

result, since, as all teachers know, there are a great many variables, some of which are 1 controllable and others that are not, which can so easily influence the outcome of any particular 2 lesson. However, taking into account what is known about learning, and about how children 3 learn, will increase the possibility of effective learning resulting from the activity undertaken. 4 

5 6 7 8 9 

Learning is a relatively permanent change in mental associations as a result of experience.The 10 changes in mental associations are internal and cannot easily be observed. 11 12 13 14 The importance of mental activity (engagement) for effective learning is at the heart of the 15 way that cognitive psychologists describe and understand the process of learning. 16 17 18 19

 Constructivist learning theory is built around a set of important features which can be summed 20 

up as follows (after Jonassen et al. 1999): 1 

2

Summary
Cognitivist definition of learning 

Mental activity 

Essential features of constructivism 

■ The construction of knowledge and not the reproduction of knowledge is paramount. 

3 It is the processes that the learner puts into place and uses that are important, rather than 4 the fact of knowing something as an end product. A learner is actively engaged with, and in 5 control of, the learning process. 6 7 8 When learning involves the use of a variety of resources (e.g. first-hand experience, 9 

secondary sources, interactive materials, independent research, dialogue), alternative viewpoints 30 of the subject in question are formed; this in turn can be used to foster the skills of critical 1 thinking. 2 

3

■ Learning can lead to multiple representations of reality. 

■ Authentic tasks in a meaningful context are encouraged. 

4 Authentic tasks, such as problem-solving, are used to situate learning in familiar and realistic 5 contexts. 6 7 8 Learners are prompted to relate new knowledge and concepts to pre-existing knowledge 9 

■ Reflection on prior experience is encouraged.
and experience, which allows the ‘new’ to integrate with what is known already and in this 40 

way adding to a learner’s framework of understanding (schema) or amending it. 41 32 

■ Collaborative work for learning is encouraged. 

Dialogue with others allows additional and alternative perspectives to be taken into account when developing personal conclusions. Different knowledge, points of view, and understanding can be given and considered before moving on. 

■ Autonomy in learning is encouraged. 

Learners are given, and accept, increasing amounts of responsibility for their own learning. This happens in a number of different ways: by collaborating with others, by working on self- generated problems and by the formulating of, and testing of, hypotheses, for example. 

The appendix includes a summary chart of the differences and similarities between the work of Piaget and Vygotsky. 

In the classroom 

• Opportunities for mental activity are essential; this leads to deeper engagement with ideas and increases the possibility of effective, lasting learning taking place. 
• Social interaction – that is discussion between pairs, groups and between teacher and pupils – is essential for the effective development of understanding. 
• Learning set in meaningful contexts is far more likely to engage learners than if it is set in other, random or remote contexts. Make learning meaningful by placing it in a setting with which children can identify. For example, when teaching about time, refer to the fixed points in the school day, bedtimes or the length of football matches.This may appear trivial, but it can make a big difference. 
• Encourage learners to review what they know about a new topic before embarking on new teaching. Ask questions. Remind the class of work from the previous term or year. 
• Encourage learners, with appropriate guidance, to find things out for themselves. 
• Gauge the processes of teacher intervention carefully so as to encourage thought processes. 

Telling is not teaching, but measured scaffolding is. 

• Encourage learners to think about and put into words the methods or approaches that they use in the course of their work – mental arithmetic, for example, or how to prepare for a test. 
• Allow time for learners to reflect upon what they have learnt.Well-managed plenaries at the end of lessons are very good for this. 

THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

This approach has preserved quite a lot of characteristic features from both the cognitive and the natural approaches. The representatives of the Communicative Approach (CA) acknowledge that structures and vocabulary are important but they emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures or vocabulary as well. When we communicate we use the language to accomplish some function such as arguing, persuading and promising. We carry out these functions with a social context. 

1.1.  Characteristics of communicative classes:

Communicative language teaching is 

•      content based

 language is a tool for getting information about the world. In this approach message is more important than the form. Interdisciplinary or in another word: cross-curricular approach, by which content can be integrated into English teaching, is based on a lot of authentic materials taken from various text types such as newspapers, journals, pamphlets, guidebooks etc. These texts cover a wide range of topics, so in addition to broadening your students’ minds, they will build up their vocabulary as well.  • intercultural

Foreign language learning is often foreign culture learning. In order to understand just what foreign culture learning is, one needs to understand the nature of acculturation and culture shock. A person's world view, selfidentity, and systems of thinking, acting, feeling, and communicating can be disrupted by a change from one culture to another

•      holistic

It means that the whole personality of the learner must be developed during language teaching. This term related to communicative language teaching, will focus teachers attention on the fact that students’ ways of thinking should also be developed.  • experiential

The students are supposed to experience that the target language acquired is very useful in life. Authentic texts such as brochures, instructions, cookery books etc. make students feel how practicable their knowledge in English is.

•      learner-centred

Learners’ needs are very important in communicative language. Activities are chosen according to the various learning styles and they also must be age relevant.

The goal of communicative language teaching is to make students communicatively competent. Let us examine what the term communicative competence means. 

1.1.  Defining Communicative Competence

The term "communicative competence" was coined by Dell Hymes (1967, 1972) -a sociolinguist who was convinced that Chomsky's (1965) notion of competence (see Chapter Two) was too limited. Communicative competence, then, is that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts. 

In the 1970s, research on communicative competence distinguished between linguistic and communicative competence (Hymes 1967, Paulston 1974) to highlight the difference between knowledge "about" language forms and knowledge that enables a person to communicate functionally and interactively. 

Seminal work on defining communicative competence was carried out by Michael Canale and Merrill Swain (1980), now the reference point for virtual discussions of communicative competence vis-á-vis second language teach in Canale and Swain's (1980), and later in Canale's (1983) definition, four :different components, or subcategories, make up the construct of communicative competence. The first two subcategories reflect the use of the linguistic stem itself.

(Brown 1994: 226-250)

(1)       Grammatical competence is that aspect of communicative competence that encompasses "knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology" (Canale and Swain 1980:29). It is the competence that we associate with mastering the linguistic code of a language, the

"linguistic" competence of Hymes and Paulston, referred to above. 

(2)       The second subcategory is discourse competence, the complement of grammatical competence in many ways. It is the ability we have to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances. Discourse means everything from simple spoken conversation to lengthy written texts (articles, books, and the like). While grammatical competence focuses on sentence-level grammar, discourse competence is concerned with intersentential relationships.

The last two subcategories define the more functional aspects of communication. 

(3)       Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of the socio-cultural rules of language and of discourse. This type of competence "requires an understanding of the social context in which language is used: the roles of the participants, the information they share, and the function of the interaction. Only in a full context of this kind can judgments be made on the appropriateness of a particular utterance (Savignon 1983: 37). 

(4)       The fourth subcategory is strategic competence, a construct that is exceedingly complex. Canale and Swain (1980: 30) described strategic competence as "the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or due to insufficient competence." Savignon (1983:40) paraphrases this as "the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules-or limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, and inattention." In short, it is the competence underlying our ability to make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through "paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in register and style" (Savignon 1983: 40-41).

Strategic competence occupies a special place in an understanding of communication. Actually, definitions of strategic competence that are limited to the notion of "'compensatory strategies" fall short of encompassing the full spectrum of the construct. In a follow-up to the previous (Canale and Swain, 1980) article, Swain (1984:189) amended the earlier notion of strategic competence to include "communication strategies that may be called into action either to enhance the effectiveness of communication or to compensate for breakdowns." (my italics) Similarly, Yule and Tarone (1990: 181) refer to strategic competence as "an ability to select an effective means of performing a communicative act that enables the listener/reader to identify the intended referent." So, all communication strategiessuch as those discussed in Chapter Five-may be thought of as arising out of a person's strategic competence. In fact, strategic competence is the way we manipulate language in order to meet communicative goals.

Total Physical Response (TPR)

The idea of TPR originates from James Asher, who found that adults’ second or foreign language learning could have similar developmental patterns to that of children’s language acquisition. A baby spends a lot of months listening to the people around it long before it says a word. In Krashen’s The Natural Approach (1983) the students listen to the teacher using the target language communicatively from the beginning of the instruction throughout the course. The teacher helps her students to understand her by using pictures and occasional words in the students’ native language and by being as expressive as possible. In TPR students listen and respond to the spoken target language commands of their teacher.

The goal of TPR is to have the students enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in a foreign language. The TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages and encourage students to persist in their study beyond the beginning level of proficiency.

The principles of TPR:

-             the  teacher is the director of all student behaviour, the students are imitators of her nonverbal model, in 10-20 hours of instruction students will be ready to speak;

-             interaction is between the teacher and the whole group of students and with individual students;

-             the method is introduced in the students’ native language, after the introduction rarely would the mother tongue be used ;

-             grammatical structures  and vocabulary are emphasized over other language areas;

-             pronunciation is developed through listening mostly;

-             culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively;

-             skills: understanding the spoken word should precede its production, the spoken language is emphasized over written language, students often do not learn to read the commands they have already learnt to perform until after 10 hours of instruction;

-             formal evaluations can be conducted by commanding individual students to perform a series of actions;

-             teachers should be tolerant of errors and only correct major errors, even these should be corrected gently;

-             the syllabus is multi-strand.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             using commands to direct behaviour 

-             role reversal (Students command their teacher and classmates to perform some actions. Students will want to speak after 10 to 20 hours of instruction.

Students should not be encouraged to speak until they are ready.)

Community Language Learning

The Community Language Learning method takes its principle from the more general Counselling-Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran. Curran studied adult learning for many years. A language counsellor means someone who is a skilful understander of the struggle students face as they attempt to internalize another language. By understanding students’ fears and being sensitive to them, he can help students overcome their negative feelings and turn them into positive energy to further their learning.

The goals of teachers are to make their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively. They want their students to learn about their own learning to take responsibility for it.

The principles of Community Language Learning:

-             the  teacher is a counsellor who recognizes how threatening a new learning situation can be for adult learners so he understands and supports his students in their struggle to acquire the target language;

-             the student-teacher interaction  in the Community Language Learning method changes within the lesson and over time, this method is neither student nor teacher centred but; rather teacher-student centred, with both being decision makers in the class; building a relationship with and among students is very important;

-             where possible, literal native equivalents are given to the target language words that have been transcribed, this makes their meaning clear and allows students to combine the target language words to create new sentences;

-             active vocabulary is very important as conversations in the target language can replace native language conversations;

-             the focus shifts from grammar to sentence formation, language is for communication;

-             pronunciation is developed by reading out loud;

-             culture is integrated with language;

-             the most important skills  are the receptive ones and speaking the language, reading and writing are worked on;

-             whatever evaluation is conducted it should be in keeping with the principles of the method, a classroom test should be more of an integrative test than a discrete point one, students are asked to write a paragraph rather than being asked to answer a question which deals with only one point of the language at a time; students often self-evaluate to become aware of their own progress;

-             errors are corrected in a non threatening way, the teacher repeats correctly what the student has said incorrectly;

-             the syllabus is designed primarily by the students.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             transcription (The teacher transcribes the students’ tape-recorded target language conversation.)

-             reflective listening (The students relax and listen to their own voices speaking the target language on the tape.)

-             human computer (The student is “in control” of the teacher when she tries to say the word or phrase. The teacher repeats the phrase as often as the student wants to practise it. The teacher does not correct the student’s mispronunciation in any way.)

-             small group tasks (The small groups make new sentences with the words on the transcript. Afterward the groups share the sentences they made with the rest of the class.) 

Suggestopedia

One of the alternative methods based on language acquisition belonging to the natural approach is Suggestopedia. The originator of the method, Georgi Lozanov asserts that we set up psychological barriers to learning. Suggestopedia has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful and to help them overcome the barriers to learning. Learning is facilitated in a relaxed, comfortable environment. A student can learn from the environment even if his attention is not directed to it. The student must trust and respect the teacher’s authority and activate his imagination. The teacher is supposed to increase her students’ confidence that they will be successful learners. The more confident the students feel, the better they will learn. When students’ attention is off the form of the language and on the process of communicating, students will learn best. The texts students work from contain lengthy dialogues in the target language. Next to the text is a translation in the learners’ mother tongue. There are some notes on the structures in the conversation as well. The teacher presents the dialogue during two concerts; the first phase of this presentation is the receptive phase. In the first concert the teacher reads the dialogue, matching her or his voice to the rhythm and pitch of the music. In this way, the “whole brain” of students becomes activated. The learners follow the target language dialogue as the teacher reads it out loud. They can also check the translation. In the second concert the students simply relax while the teacher reads the dialogue at a normal rate of speed. After this phase the students read over the dialogue again before they go to sleep and again when they get up the next morning. In the activation phase students engage in various activities including dramatizations, games, songs and question-and-answer exercises.

The goal of the method is to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. This is to be done by breaking down the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situation.

The principles of Suggestopedia:

-             the  teacher is the authority in the classroom, who must be trusted and respected by the students – once the students trust the teacher, they feel secure, they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited;

-             all types of interactions are to be found in case of the method, however first it is the teacher that initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with individuals right from the beginning of a course; in the beginning of the course the students can only respond nonverbally, later the students have more control of the target language and can respond more appropriately, and even initiate interaction themselves. Students interact with each other from the beginning in various activities directed by the teacher;

-             native language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialogue clear, the teacher uses the mother tongue in lesson when necessary; as the course proceeds, the teacher uses the native language less and less;

-             vocabulary is emphasized, the success of the method can be put down to the large number of words that can be acquired;

-             grammar is dealt with explicitly but minimally, students will learn best if their conscious attention is focused not on the language forms but on using the language;

-             pronunciation is developed by reading out loud;

-             the culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of people who speak the language. The use of the fine arts is also common in Suggestopedia;

-             speaking communicatively is emphasized, students also read the target language and write, for example compositions;

-             evaluation is conducted on students’ normal in-class performance and not through formal tests;

-             at the beginning levels, errors are not corrected immediately since the emphasis is on students communicating their intended meaning; when errors occur the teacher uses delayed correction;

-             the syllabus used in the method is functional.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             peripheral learning (This activity is based on the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. By putting posters on the classroom walls students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly. Posters are changed from time to time to provide grammatical information that is appropriate to what the learners are studying.)

-             choose a new identity (Learners choose a target language name and a new profession or trade. In someone else’s shoes the learners will be less inhibited while using the target language.)

The Silent Way

According to cognitive psychologists and transformational generative linguists language learning does not take place through mimicry since people can create utterances they have never heard before. That is the reason why language must not be considered a product of habit formation, but rather a rule formation. Language acquisition must be a procedure where people use their own thinking processes, or cognition to discover the rules of the language they are acquiring. The emphasis on human cognition led to the name “cognitive code” being applied to a new general approach to language teaching. Caleb Gattegno’s Silent Way did not emerge from the cognitive code approach it shares certain principles with it. In the Silent Way teaching should be subordinated to learning.

The goal of the method is to enable students to use the language for selfexpression to express their thoughts, perceptions and feelings. In order to do this they need to develop independence from the teacher, to develop their own inner criteria for correctness.

The principles of the Silent Way:

-             the teacher is a technician or engineer, only the learner can do the learning but the teacher can focus the students’ perceptions, force their awareness;

-             for much of the students-teacher interaction the teacher is silent; he is still very active setting up situations to force awareness; when the teacher speaks it is to give clues not to model the language; student-student verbal interaction is desirable and is encouraged;

-             the students’ native language can be used to give instructions when necessary to help a student improve his/her pronunciation; the native language is also used during the feed-back sessions; - vocabulary is restricted at first;

-             there is a focus on the structures of the language, although explicit grammar rules may never be supplied;

-             pronunciation is worked on from the beginning, it is important that students acquire the melody of the language;

-             all four skills are worked on from the beginning of the course, although there is a sequence in that students learn to read or write what they have already produced orally; the skills reinforce what students are learning;

-             the culture as reflected in people’s own unique world view is inseparable from their language;

-             the teacher never gives a formal test, he assesses student learning all the time; the teacher must be responsive to immediate learning needs; the teacher does not praise or criticize student behaviour since this would interfere with students developing their own inner criteria; the teacher looks for steady progress, not perfection;

-             students’ errors are seen as a natural, indispensable part of the learning process, errors are inevitable since the students are encouraged to explore the language; the teacher uses student errors as a basis for deciding where further work is necessary;

-             there is no fixed linear, structural syllabus, instead the teacher starts with what the students know and builds from one structure to the next; the previously introduced structures are continually being recycled.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             sound-colour chart (The chart contains blocks of colour, each one representing a sound in the target language. The chart allows students to produce sound combinations in the target language without doing so through repetition.)

-             teacher’s silence (The teacher gives just as much help as is necessary and then is silent. Even in error correction the teacher will only supply a verbal answer as a last resort.)

-             peer correction

-             rods (Rods can be used to provide visible actions or situations for any language structure to introduce it, or to enable students to practice using it.)

-             self correction gestures (The teacher indicates for example that each of his fingers represents a word in a sentence and uses this to locate the trouble spot for the student.)

-             word chart 

-             Fidel charts (The teacher points to the colour coded Fidel charts in order that students can associate the sounds of the language with their spelling.)

-             structured feed-back (The teacher accepts the students’ comments in a non-defensive manner hearing things that will help give him direction for where he should work when the class meets again.) (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 51-72)

The Audio-Lingual Method

The Audio-Lingual Method, which belongs to the cognitive approach of language teaching, was developed in the United States during WW II. There was a great demand for people speaking foreign languages for military purposes. They had to be prepared for their tasks in shortcut intensive courses. Some of the principles used in this method are similar to those of the direct method but many are different, based upon the conceptions of the Grammar Translation Method. 

The goal of Audio-Lingual Method is to enable students to use the target language communicatively. In order to do this, students need to over-learn the target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think. This aim can be achieved by students’ forming new habits in the target language and overcoming the old habits of their native language.

The principles of the method are:

-             the teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the language behaviour of her/his students; she provides her students with a good model for imitation;

-             the target language is used in the classroom not the students’ native language;

-             a contrastive analyses between the students’ native language and the target language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference;

-             there is student-student interaction in chain drills or when students take different roles in dialogues, but this interaction is teacher-directed because most of the interaction is between teacher-student and is initiated by the teacher;

-             new vocabulary and structures  are presented through dialogues, the dialogues are learnt through imitation and repetition, grammar is induced from the examples given: explicit grammar rules are not provided;

-             cultural information is contextualized in the dialogues or presented by the teacher;

-             the oral/aural skills receive most of the attention, pronunciation is taught from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories;

-             students are evaluated on the bases of distinguishing between words in a minimal pair or by supplying an appropriate word form in a sentence;

-             student errors are to be avoided through the teacher’s awareness of where the students will have difficulty;

-             the syllabus is structure-based.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             dialogue memorization

-             expansion-drill (This drill is used when a long dialogue is giving students trouble. The teacher brakes down the line into several parts. Following the teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until they are able to repeat the entire line. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the sentence and works backward from there to keep the intonation of the line as natural as possible. This directs more student attention to the end of the sentence, where new information typically occurs.)

-             repetition drill

-             chain drill (The teacher begins the chain of conversation by greeting a student or asking him a question. That student responds, then turns to the student sitting next to him and the chain will be continued. The chain drill allows some controlled communication, even though it is limited.)

-             single-slot substitution drill (The teacher says a line, usually from the dialogue. Next, the teacher says a word or a phrase- called a cue. The students repeat the line the teacher has given them substituting the cue into the line in its proper place. The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.)

-             multiple-slot substitution drill (The teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time that fit into different slots in the dialogue line. The students have to recognise what part of speech each cue is where it fits into the sentence and make other changes such as subject-verb agreement.)

-             transformation drill (Students are asked fro example to transform an affirmative sentence into a negative one.)

-             question and answer drill 

-             use of minimal pairs (The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in only one sound eg. ship – sheep.)

-             gap-filling 

The Direct Method

Since the Grammar Translation Method was not very effective in preparing students to use the target language communicatively, the Direct Method became popular. In the Direct Method no translation is allowed. The Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be connected directly with the target language without going through the process of translating into he students’ native language. The method itself belongs to the natural approach of language teaching.

The goal of language learning is communication. In order to achieve this goal, students should learn to think in the target language.

The principles of the method:

-             the initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from students to teacher although the latter is often teacher-directed, at the same time student-student interaction is used as well;

-             the native language should not be used in the classroom;

-             the teacher should demonstrate not explain or translate;

-             the teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning process;

-             it is desirable that students make a direct association between the target language and meaning;

-             students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible;

-             vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentences rather than memorising word lists;

-             pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language instruction;

-             lessons should contain some conversation activity – some opportunity for students to use language in real contexts;

-             students should be encouraged to speak as much as possible;

-             grammar should be taught inductively;

-             there may never be an explicit grammar rule given;

-             the syllabus is based on situations or topics not on linguistic structures;

-             learning a language involves learning the behaviour culture of the people living in the target country;

-             culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language and the geography of the country or countries where the language is spoken and information about the daily lives of the speakers in the target language are studied;

-             vocabulary is emphasized over grammar;

-             work on all four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) occurs from the start, oral communication is seen as basic;

-             there is no formal evaluation in the class, students have to use the language using both oral and written skills;

-             the teacher tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.

Activities characteristic of the method:

-             reading aloud

-             conversation practice

-             gap filling exercise

-             dictation 

-             map drawing (The students are given a map with the geographical features unnamed. Then the teacher gives the students directions. (Following the teacher’s