Teaching the language system
Alejandra Mora
The deductive approach
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we will usually choose some way of explaining the form and meaning of that language before asking for student repetition as part of a controlled practice phase of the lesson sequence
students are given explanations or grammar rules
based on these explanations or rules, they make phrases and sentences using the
new language.
The inductive approach
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things happen the other way round. In other words, instead of going from the rules to the examples, students see examples of language and try to work out the rules.
for example, after students have read a text, we might ask
them to find examples of different past tenses and say how and why they are used.
It is generally easier for more advanced
students to analyse language using discovery procedures than it is for complete beginners.
Explaining meaning
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We can demonstrate superlative adjectives, by using hand and arm movements to show ‘big ... bigger ... biggest’, and many teachers have standard gestures to explain such things as the past
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for example, a picture of someone coming away from a swimming pool with dripping wet hair to show ‘She’s just been swimming 
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Another way of demonstrating grammatical sequence is to write words on individual cards which can then be moved around (to show the difference between affirmative sentence order and the syntax of questions.
Practice and controlled practice
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This practice helps them to internalise how the language is constructed so that when it passes from their short term memory to their long-term memory, they know how it is put together
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We remember PIN numbers for credit cards, our own car licence plates, and passwords for bank accounts or. computers because we need to use them all the time.
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but it gives them all a chance for individual repetition, a chance once again to see how it feels to say the new language
EXAMPLES OF LANGUAGE TEACHING
ideas for teaching grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and
language functions. These lesson sequences and ideas will include both student discovery Type moments and explain and practise examples
Teaching grammar
is to use an explain and practise
procedure such as we have described above.
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for example, if we want to teach the present simple for habitual actions, we can show elementary students pictures of someone with an interesting occupation
Teaching pronunciation
the idea is to know the intonation of each audio and to identify the words and accustom the ear to the new idiom.
Same sentence, different situations: a variation on these activities is to get students
to think about how they would say the same sentence in different situations
Minimal pair exercises like this can be used with any age and, depending on what
particular words, sentences and phrases are used, at any level
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we will model words and phrases indicating appropriate stress and intonation
Teaching vocabulary
we might have individual pictures on flashcards showing people who are tired, sad, happy
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For any classes above the complete beginner level we can assume that different students will know a range of different lexical items