Tradition and Transition in Second Language Teaching Methodology

A discussion of the practice of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching calls for an instructional strategy integrating traditional methods and the communicative approach. Components of traditional teaching methods (grammar instruction, correction, dictation, dialogue, and native language use) are linked with communicative questioning strategies, participation patterns, and interactive materials in a number of classroom techniques and procedures. Focus is on ESL instruction for native speakers of Chinese. Notes on grammar instruction and error correction highlight features of Chinese that contrast or compare with features of English (e.g., word order) or that are challenges for native Chinese speakers (e.g., verb endings), and on effective classroom techniques for addressing them in class. Principles underlying use of classroom participation patterns that support development of communicative competence are also discussed. Grammar-focused tasks that integrate traditional and communicative approaches are then described, including information exchange, dictogloss, and dictocomp tasks. Finally, the role of the native language in the ESL classroom is examined briefly. Contains 65 references. (MSE) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Tradition and Transition in Second Language Teaching Methodology

[1]  Charles Arthur Curran.  Counseling-Learning: A Whole Person Model for Education , 1977 .

[2]  P. Lightbown,et al.  Focus-on-Form and Corrective Feedback in Communicative Language Teaching , 1990, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[3]  A. Bruton,et al.  Learner and Teacher Roles in the Treatment of Oral Error in Group Work , 1980 .

[4]  Yael Bejarano,et al.  A Cooperative Small‐Group Methodology in the Language Classroom , 1987 .

[5]  Charlene J. Sato.  PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: ANOTHER LOOK AT INTERLANGUAGE SYLLABLE STRUCTURE , 1984 .

[6]  Nina Spada,et al.  Relationships between Instructional Differences and Learning Outcomes: A Process-product Study of Communicative Language Teaching. , 1987 .

[7]  Kristine A Billmyer.  The effect of formal instruction on the development of sociolinguistic competence: The performance of compliments , 1990 .

[8]  Elaine Day,et al.  Integrating formal and functional approaches to language teaching in French immersion : An experimental study , 1991 .

[9]  Rod Ellis,et al.  Communicating about Grammar: A Task-Based Approach , 1991 .

[10]  T. Pica.  Questions From the Language Classroom: Research Perspectives , 1994 .

[11]  Merril Swain,et al.  Collaborative dialogue: its contribution to second language learning , 1997 .

[12]  R. Lyster.  The Effect of Functional-Analytic Teaching on Aspects of French Immersion Students' Sociolinguistic Competence. , 1994 .

[13]  M. Tomasello,et al.  Down the Garden Path: Inducing and correcting overgeneralization errors in the foreign language classroom , 1988, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[14]  C. Chaudron,et al.  Second Language Classrooms , 1988 .

[15]  Hao-Jan Howard Chen.  A study of the effect of corrective feedback on foreign language learning: American students learning Chinese classifiers , 1996 .

[16]  Ruth Wajnryb.  Classroom observation tasks : a resource book for language teachers and trainers , 1994 .

[17]  Carol Montgomery,et al.  Real Reality Revisited: An Experimental Communicative Course in ESL , 1985 .

[18]  M. Swain.  Communicative competence : Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development , 1985 .

[19]  Caleb Gattegno,et al.  Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools The Silent Way , 1974 .

[20]  Birgit Harley,et al.  Functional Grammar in French Immersion: A Classroom Experiment1 , 1989 .

[21]  Michael Tomasello,et al.  Feedback for Language Transfer Errors , 1989, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[22]  C. Chaudron.  A DESCRIPTIVE MODEL OF DISCOURSE IN THE CORRECTIVE TREATMENT OF LEARNERS' ERRORS1 , 1977 .

[23]  Manfred Pienemann,et al.  Psychological Constraints on the Teachability of Languages , 1984, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[24]  N. S. Prabhu.  There Is No Best Method-Why ? , 1990 .

[25]  Michael H. Long.  Focus on Form: A Design Feature in Language Teaching Methodology , 1991 .

[26]  Lydia White,et al.  Implications of Learnability Theories for Second Language Learning and Teaching , 1990 .

[27]  Nina Spada,et al.  语言学习机制=How languages are learned , 1995 .

[28]  Mark A. Clarke,et al.  On Bandwagons, Tyranny, and Common Sense* , 1982 .

[29]  Lydia White.  Adverb placement in second language acquisition: some effects of positive and negative evidence in the classroom , 1991 .

[30]  Michael H. Long.  The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition , 1996 .

[31]  Catherine Doughty,et al.  The Role of Group Work in Classroom Second Language Acquisition , 1985, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[32]  Jürgen M. Meisel,et al.  On determining developmental stages in natural second language acquisition , 1981, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[33]  Rod Ellis,et al.  Are Classroom and Naturalistic Acquisition the Same? , 1989, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[34]  Teresa Pica,et al.  What Can Second Language Learners Learn from Each Other? Only Their Researcher Knows for Sure , 1995 .

[35]  R. Schmidt.  Psychological Mechanisms Underlying Second Language Fluency , 1992, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[36]  Evangeline Marlos Varonis,et al.  Incorporated Repairs in Nonnative Discourse , 1989 .

[37]  Patricia A. Duff,et al.  TEACHERS LANGUAGE USE IN UNIVERSITY FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH AND TARGET LANGUAGE ALTERNATION , 1994 .

[38]  J. Asher.  The Total Physical Response Approach to Second Language Learning , 1969 .

[39]  M. Swain.  The output hypothesis : Just speaking and writing aren't enough , 1993 .

[40]  Zoltán Dörnyei,et al.  On the Teachability of Communication Strategies , 1995 .

[41]  Richard Young,et al.  The Impact of Interaction on Comprehension , 1987 .

[42]  Deborah J. Short,et al.  Integrating Language and Content Instruction: Strategies and Techniques. , 1991 .