CH 3
Grammar-Based orientation
Characteristics: Based on the following assumptions about language:
-Learning a language means learning the grammar and vocabulary
-Learning a language expands one's intellect
-Learning a foreign language enables one to translate great works of literature
-Learning the grammar of a foreign language helps one learn the grammar of one's own language
Definition: an early approach, founded on faculty psychology and traditional grammar. Faculty psychology held that different kinds of knowledge were located in different parts of the brain.
Example: Students studying the grammar and vocabulary of a language, such as Latin or Greek, with the goal of translating literature from the language to their home language.
Non-example: parts of a language cannot be necessarily taught, for they are learned through social interaction and exposure
Communicative Orientation
Characteristics: Based on the idea that since children can acquire a first language naturally, the classroom should focus on providing intense interaction in the second language.
Definition: The goal is to communicate with speakers of a language rather than to translate great works of literature
Example: Language is primarily speech, but reading and writing should be taught from the beginning.
Non-example: Learning language is not done through communication, it is specifically taught.
Empiricist Orientation
Characteristics: 1. Language is speech, not writing. 2. A language is a set of habits.
- Teach the language, not about the language.
- A language is what its native speakers say, not what someone thinks they ought to say.
- Languages are different.
Definition: Language teaching and learning based on behaviorist psychology and structural linguistics.
Example: Placing the emphasis on oral language. Teachers should teach THE language.
Non-example: Teaching about the language or explicitly teaching grammar.
Rationalist Orientation
Characteristics: 1. A living language is characterized by rule-governed creativity
- The rules of a grammar are psychologically real
- People are especially equipped to learn language
- A living language is a language in which we can think
Definition: Most current methods of second and foreign language teaching are based on this orientation, which comes from Chomsky's work in generative grammar and the research in cognitive psychology.
Example: The teacher models an expression only once and then students must work to reproduce the expression.
Non-example: Languages are habits developed through stimulus and response.
Community Language Learning
Characteristics: Conversations are taped and used as a text for learning.
Definition: The teacher helps translate what the students want to say from the student's native language into the language students are learning.
Example: The teacher facilitates interaction among the students in the same way that a counselor would work with a counseling group.
Non-example: Explicitly teaching language and grammar through specific rules and vocabulary. Not focused on oral language or interaction between others.