Lesson 02
September 21st, 2011
By early 1990s, many experts as well as practitioners believed that there was no single method that was superior or better than others. Thus, there was an opinion to unify all methods. This particular time is called “postmethod era” when there is no single method that is predominant. Since then, there is no more new method that is created. Further, in case there appears a “new term” on method that is actually uprooted from the existence methods and approaches. David Nunan (in Brown, 41) explains that it has been realized that there never was and probably never will be a method for all, and the focus in recent years has been on the development of classroom tasks and activities which are consonant with what we know about second language acquisition, and which are also in keeping with the dynamics of the classroom itself.
Therefore, teachers need to be well-informed, means they have to consciously choose a method to be used in the class. Teachers must know the underlying philosophy of the method, the reasons, as well as the strengths and weaknesses. In addition, teachers need to use eclectic approach that is enlightened. It means teachers should know many methods as a repertoire in minds that they are contextual to our particular students. Brown (2007: 43) summed it as that approach to language pedagogy is not just a set of static principles “set in stone.” It is, in fact, a dynamic composite of energies within you that change, or should change, with your experiences in your learning and teaching.
There are twelve principles to be considered in teaching English as a foreign language. Mainly, they are categorized into three principles; cognitive, socioaffective and linguistic principle.
 | Principle | Idea | What Teachers should do |
| 1. Automaticity | The goal is to make the students use the language spontaneously and automatically. | Provide massive exposure to the language by using teacher-talk or foreigner-talk that is modified language | |
| 2. Meaningful Learning | · Subsumes the new information into existing structures and memory system (previous knowledge). · The goal is to make long-term retention | o Make associations between existing experience and new material. o Avoid too much drilling that causes rote learning | |
| 3. Anticipation of Reward | Human beings are universally driven to act by the anticipation of reward that will ensue as a result of the behavior | Provide appropriate and sufficient rewards to each of students. Also encourage students to rewards each others. | |
| 4. Intrinsic Motivation | It stems from students’ needs, wants, or desires. | Create interesting and healthy classroom techniques that encourage self-rewarding | |
| 5. Strategic  Investment | Successful learners are both success in learning the language and learning strategies | o Emphasize the importance of showing students to wide variety of styles and strategies to bring to the learning process o Thus, teachers also teach how to learn the language, in order to save time, energy, effort etc. | |
| 6. Autonomy | Successful mastery of language will depend on students’ autonomous ability to take initiative in the classroom and outside it. | Consider the various age and proficiency when address the students | |
 | 7. Language Ego | A new language can create a sense of fragility, a defensiveness, and a raising of inhibitions. | This principle doesn’t occur in EFL classrooms, i.e. Indonesia |
| 8. Willingness to Communicate (WTO) | WTO combines concepts of self- confidence and risk-taking. | Are expected to create instructional context which encourage students to take necessary risk to initiate communication | |
| 9. Language-Culture Connection | A complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. | Have a look on government policy about this | |
 | 10. Native Language Effect | Mostly the same with Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis | Thinking directly in the target language helps to minimize interference errors |
| 11. Interlanguage | It partially results of utilizing feedback | Need to provide appropriate feedback | |
| 12. Communicative Competence | Bachman (1990) and Canale-Swain (1980) summarize four components in language teaching; namely organizational (grammatical and discourse), pragmatic (functional and sociolinguistic), strategic competence, psychomotoric skills | Need to develop this principle |
When students are motivated intrinsically and having a good investment strategy in learning, later it will result in automaticity learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment