Assignment 2 551
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Transcript of Assignment 2 551
Q.1 Which teaching method do you prefer to teach
English in your classroom keeping in view the national
educational scenario? Justify your comments with
arguments.
Ans: In this assignment we are going to study two of the
oldest methods of teaching foreign languages, these
methods are the grammar translation method and the direct
method. We shall look at the main features of both of these
methods and see how they can be used by the teacher in the
class room. Finally we shall assess each method and see
whether or not they have a part to play in English language
teaching in Pakistan.
Before proceeding to the topic proper it looks appropriate to
discuss what approach, method and technique are. Over the
years there have been many changes in the ways in which
people learn and teach foreign languages. During the second
half of this century especially, many different teaching
methods have come into fashion and have just as quickly
gone out again. When we want to discuss these different
methods, there seems to be a problem: the terms
approaches, theories, philosophies, methods, techniques,
etc. seems to be used interchangeably, with those taking
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part in the discussion unsure as to exactly what the other
participants mean when they use these terms. Therefore,
before we start discussing different methods of language
teaching, let us try to define these terms as we shall be
using them throughout this course.
Approach:
An approach to language teaching is a set of beliefs about
language when underlies or prescribes the use of a certain
method. For example, if you believe that language is
primarily concerned with speaking, then you will follow a
method of language teaching which concentrates on
developing the spoken skills. If you believe that language is
a set of rules, then you will adopt a teaching method which
gibes emphasis to the rote learning of grammatical
structures and so on… the terms principle, theory, and
philosophy can mean the same as approach in this context.
Method:
A method of language teaching is a complete set of
procedures and techniques that follow a systematic scheme.
They are often prescribed by the approaches, as we have
just seen. For example, the audio-lingual method is based on
the view that language consists of grammar, and that we
learn it through repetition. Thus a teacher using this method
will use drilling, repetition, and reinforcement.
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Technique:
This is the narrowest term of the three, and refers to specific
procedures within the method. For example, while the
teacher is conducting a language drill, he will first call on the
whole class to respond, then he will call on a group within
the class to respond, and then he will call on an individual.
This is a technique within a method.
The classical approach to language learning
Underlying this method we find the traditional, or classical
approach to language teaching; it was believed that modern
languages could be taught in exactly the same way as the
ancient languages of Greek and Latin had been taught for
many centuries. But here we need to ask ourselves a
question: what was the purpose in teaching these ancient
languages? They had been dead for hundreds of years;
nobody actually spoke them anymore. The answer is that
they were taught purely as an academic exercise- learning
these languages was considered to be an excellent training
for the mind. Since the languages themselves were long
since dead, there was no question of training students to
understand and produce conversational forms; emphasis
was thus given to the grammatical system and to the
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reading and translation of literary texts in the target
language.
The purpose of learning a modern language, such as English
or Japanese, however, may be very different. Usually the
student wants to be able to communicate in the language
which he is learning, and this means that he must master
the skills of listening and speaking in the target language
just as much (and probably more so ) than those of reading
and writing. The classical approach to language learning,
however, takes little account of this need.
The Grammar Translation method
Let us imagine that we are unseen observers in an English
class which is being taught by the grammar-translation
method. What exactly is happening?
When the teacher enters the classroom he will greet the
students and carry out any class ‘business’ in the mother
tongue. Again in the mother tongue, the class will be
directed to open their textbooks at the page where they left
off in the last class. The textbooks will contain rather heavy,
literary-style texts, and will be unlikely to contain examples
of modern conversational-style English. The teacher may say
a few words about what was read the day before, and then
he will start to read through the text and to translate it
section by section. The students hurry to note down the L1
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translations of any words they don’t understand. They may
be given a word list to memorize as a homework task.
Translation is followed by a few comprehension questions in
L1, or the students may be asked to gibe an L1 translation of
sentences from the text. Finally the teacher may write up a
paradigm or model construction about grammar.
Advantages of Grammar-translation method:
It can be useful for large classes
It can be useful for inexperienced teachers.
It may gibe adult learner confidence.
Students get plenty of practice in reading, grammar
and translation.
Disadvantages:
The student cannot use the language for
communication.
The student cannot use the language appropriately.
The Natural Approach to Language Teaching
We are now going to look at another approach to language
learning and teaching- one which is very different from the
classical approach. This is not surprising, as it was developed
in the second half of the nineteenth century as a reaction
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against the strict intellectual confines of the classical
approach and its resulting grammar-translation method. In
its development we can find a parallel to the reaction
against the classical style in literature and the arts. The
Romantic Movement, with its emphasis on a ‘return to
Nature’. According to the exponents of the Natural
Approach, then, language was first to be learnt through
speech, since this was the natural route taken by a child
when he acquired his first language. Reading and writing
followed later. Just as a young child learning his first
language rarely, if ever, had the rules of grammar explained
to him, so in learning a second language he was to follow the
same patch by finding out for himself how the language
worked. The developing science of psychology was also
applied to language learning; the resulting theories called for
teachers to help the students learn by enabling them to
visualize actual objects and link them with words in the
target language; to encourage the students, especially the
younger ones, to learn through play, and through activity in
everyday situations. Most important of all, language was
natural, and the heavy literary texts were to be a thing of
the past. Instead, texts were chosen which reflected the day-
to-day culture of the countries where the target language
was spoken.
The Direct Method
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By now we understand that a new educational approach
often gives rise to a new method, and the natural approach
was no exception. The principles of this approach to
language teaching became enshrined in what came to be
known as the direct method. Even so, the grammar-
translation method was not cast aside overnight. Indeed, in
many parts of the world, it lingers on to this day. Now again
we will come to the advantages and disadvantages of this
method.
Advantages
The language learnt is useful for communication.
The student will gain confidence in speaking.
The method is motivating.
Disadvantages
Teacher’s refusal to translate can waste time.
Many students feel more confident if they are given
some grammar rules.
The direct method needs excellent teachers.
To conclude we can rightly say that every method and
approach has its merits and demerits. It is now up to the
learner and the teacher to get the most benefit of them by
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using these methods according their situation. An interesting
research that was held in Islamabad is given below.
Method plays an important role in the teaching of language.
It is a planned and systematic effort of the teacher for
establishing sequence in the various parts of the teaching.
The direct method, as its name suggests, is teaching the
foreign language without the interference of mother tongue.
It is also called "natural method" because the students learn
the foreign language in the same way as they learn their
mother tongue. In this method, not the word but the
sentence is the unit of the grammar, while the traditional
method aims at teaching English by word-to-word translation
in mother tongue. The child begins to develop his vocabulary
from a single word. The Solomon four-group design was used
for the treatment of the data. The students of Federal
Government boy's secondary schools of Islamabad were the
population of the study. In this design: Subjects were
randomly assigned to four groups. Intelligence test was
administered to determine the level of each student before
treatment and to equalize the students of four groups.
Experimental groups were taught by direct method while the
Control groups were taught by traditional method for a
period of three months. At the end of the treatment, a
posttest was administered and scores of pre-test, posttest
and intelligence test served as data of the study. Applying t-
test and analysis of variance tested to know the significance
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of difference between the scores of groups at 0.05 levels.
The main objectives of the study were:
to determine the role of direct teaching in the
academic achievement of student in English at
secondary level,
to determine whether the direct teaching method is
more effective than traditional method in teaching of
English,
to examine the effects of direct teaching on the
academic achievement of high achievers and low
achievers,
to investigate whether the students can retain the
learning for a longer time when taught through direct
method,
To give recommendations for improvement of suitable
method of teaching English at secondary level.
To achieve the objectives of the study, null hypotheses were
formulated and tested. Obtained data was analyzed,
interpreted and concluded that direct teaching method was
more effective as a teaching-learning technique for English
as compared to traditional teaching method. Students in the
direct teaching method outscored than students working in
traditional learning situation. Low achievers in direct
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teaching showed significant superiority over low achievers
learning English by the traditional method.
CONCLUSION
Thus direct teaching was found to be more effective method
for teaching English to the low achievers as compared to
traditional method of teaching. High achievers, whether they
were taught English by direct method or traditional method,
retained learnt material at the same rate. Low achievers
taught English by direct method retained more material as
compared to low achievers taught by traditional method of
teaching. Therefore direct teaching seemed to be more
effective teaching learning technique for low achievers
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Q.2 Does the mastery of grammatical structure
enable a student to communicate in real language
situations? What do you think? Give real life examples
in favour of your arguments.
Ans: Mastery of grammatical structure no doubt helps a
learner to learn language, also helps to understand it but it is
not very much helpful for a student to be fluent and use the
language in real life situations, though he will be very good
at writing and reading, he may be well equipped in solving
the exercises of direct and indirect speeches, transformation
of voices, use of correct very but only in written form, when
a need comes to use this skill with some native speaker, he
will not be able to communicate properly with him.
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Why a student who has learnt a foreign language by
grammar rules is unable to speak frequently or use in a real
life situation? He answer is the student has been consistently
out off the language and has studied the highly formal,
literary form of it. He is usually unable to communicate with
a native speaker .this is hardly surprising that the learner
has never got the opportunity to use this language skill with
some native speaker at school or college level. When he
tends to open his mouth he tends to speak like a nineteenth
century prose.
The second object on this teaching method is that those who
have learned a foreign language, no doubt, they know a lot
about the language, but they do not know anything about
itself. By this we mean that he has spent years and yeas at
school explained at him the grammar rules, but he cannot
apply what he has learnt in order to communicate.
Such a learner cannot use the language appropriately.
Language learnt for its own sake and out of any day-to-day
content may be wrongly used when time eventually comes.
For example the stiff and formal’ please be seated’ is not
going to make a speaker of modern English at ease when he
himself expect the less formal ‘have a seat’ wouldn’t you? or
do sit down. Similarly a foreign learning Urdu needs to know
when and to whom to say ‘for example’ ‘baith Jao’ and
‘Tashreef Rakhiay’.
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So, we can say that students cannot use the language for
communication when he is learning rules first and he is given
no opportunity to speak at school. Then definitely, he will
only keep learning the rules of the new language and when
ever he is to face a situation where he has to speak a foreign
language, he feels disturbed, rather he faces difficulty to
speak the required language. He has learnt the heavy text
book words, when he goes for some shopping in a market, if
he uses these typical old words, common people will be
unable to understand the words used by him. As for
forgiveness the word ’pardon’ was used in books. If he uses
this word before a common citizen, he will never be excused
because people will be unable to understand the word
spoken by him. When he wants to speak with someone, he
will keep in mind all the rules he has learnt about that when
he will recall so much rules, then definitely he will be
confused to use the language. He will keep thinking about
that and will be unable to speak that.
Secondly for communication, communicative competency is
required rather than understanding the rules of the
language. The communicative competency can be achieved
only by frequent use of the target language when a learner
is given opportunity to speak the target language according
to different situations. For example when a person meets a
banker he uses different language and the learner gets the
opportunity to learn and speak. Similarly when a learner of a
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new language goes to market and meets shopkeepers and
other people he will be able to learn the new words and will
also get the opportunity to speak it freely. This will help the
person to learn a language which is more useful for him in
his common day life.
ROLES OF TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
In such a class where grammar translation method is being
used, there students are only passive listeners. The
teacher’s role is active. He takes a book and starts reading
from it and explains the lesson in their native language. He
does not give the opportunity to the students to speak the
language which they are using. Thus the students do not
have confidence to speak while they want to use it. Their
role remains for years and years of only a passive listener.
They cannot use it for communication.
The teachers, who are using this method, do not have
adequate training in English language teaching. They do not
plan anything for their lesson. They only bother about the
vocabulary of the text which they have to teach in the class.
The teacher does not discuss the lesson except his routine
preparation and students are never asked to answer in
target language, due to which they cannot use this language
as a true learner of a language.
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The students get only plenty of practice in reading and in
writing exercises requiring grammatical manipulation. They
become only enable to produce reasonable translation in
both the target language and in their mother tongue.
GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE CLASSICAL APPROACH
Underlying this method we find the traditional, or classical
approach to language teaching; it was believed that modern
languages could be taught in exactly the same way as the
ancient languages of Greek and Latin had been taught for
many centuries. But here we need to ask ourselves a
question: what was the purpose in teaching these ancient
languages? They had been dead for hundreds of years;
nobody actually spoke them anymore. The answer is that
they were taught purely as an academic exercise- learning
these languages was considered to be an excellent training
for the mind. Since the languages themselves were long
since dead, there was no question of training students to
understand and produce conversational forms; emphasis
was thus given to the grammatical system and to the
reading and translation of literary texts in the target
language.
THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING MODERN LANGUAGES
The purpose of learning a modern language, such as English
or Japanese, however, may be very different. Usually the
student wants to be able to communicate in the language
15
which he is learning, and this means that he must master
the skills of listening and speaking in the target language
just as much (and probably more so ) than those of reading
and writing. The classical approach to language learning,
however, takes little account of this need.
HOW ONE CAN GET COMPETANCE WITH TRADITIONAL
METHOD?
Let us imagine that we are unseen observers in an English
class which is being taught by the grammar-translation
method. What exactly is happening?
When the teacher enters the classroom he will greet the
students and carry out any class ‘business’ in the mother
tongue. Again in the mother tongue, the class will be
directed to open their textbooks at the page where they left
off in the last class. The textbooks will contain rather heavy,
literary-style texts, and will be unlikely to contain examples
of modern conversational-style English. The teacher may say
a few words about what was read the day before, and then
he will start to read through the text and to translate it
section by section. The students hurry to note down the L1
translations of any words they don’t understand. They may
be given a word list to memorize as a homework task.
Translation is followed by a few comprehension questions in
L1, or the students may be asked to give an L1 translation of
sentences from the text. Finally the teacher may write up a
16
paradigm or model construction about grammar. One can
imagine that how can a person get competence in this
environment.
GOAL OF TEACHER
So the goals of teachers who use the grammar translation
method as a fundamental purpose of learning a foreign
language are to make the students able to read literature
written in the target language. To do this, students need to
know about the grammar rules and vocabulary of the target
language. The role of teacher and student is very traditional.
The teacher is the authority in the class-room. The students
are taught to translate from one language to another
language. The students are given the grammar rules and
examples and are told to memorize them. Then they are
asked to apply these rules to other examples.
LANGUAGE USED IN THE CLASS
Most of the interaction in the class room is from the teacher
to the student is generally literary language. It is considered
superior to spoken language and is therefore the language of
study. Vocabulary and grammar are emphasized. Reading
and writing are primary skills that the students work on.
There is much less attention given to speaking and listening.
Pronunciation receives a little attention. The meaning of the
target language is made clear by translation into native
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language. The language mostly used in class is students’
native language. Having correct answer from the students is
very important. If the students make errors or do not know
answer, the teacher supplies them with correct answer.
CONCLUSION
To sum up, I would be accurate to say that by learning
grammar rules, learner of a foreign language cannot get
mastery over that target language. We cannot get a good
cricketer only by telling him about the rules of the cricket
without putting him in the play ground and without giving
him plenty of practice. Similarly we cannot be a good driver
of a car only by cramming the rules of driving without sitting
on the steering wheel and having a good practice of drive.
We can rightly say that only frequent use of the target
language can help to learn a language which can be useful in
our daily life.
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Q.3 Explain synthetic and analytic approaches to
languages syllabus design.
Ans: An approach to language teaching is a set of believes
about language which underlies or prescribes the use of a
certain method. For example if you believe that language is
primarily concerned with speaking, then you will follow a
method of language teaching which concentrates on
developing the spoken skill if you believe that language is a
set of rules, then you will follow such a method which will
give emphasis to the rote learning of grammatical structure.
The terms principals, philosophy, theory and philosophy can
mean the same as approach in this context.
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The following drill which would be typical of one conducted
in an audio-lingual methods class, the syllabus item labeled
‘present continuous and present simple tense’
DRILL
Teacher: John writes to his friend every week.
Students: He is writing to his friend now.
Teacher: John plays cricket every afternoon.
Students: He is playing now.
Teacher: John helps his father every evening.
Students: He is helping his father now.
The attention of the class is focused on structure or
grammatical forms, involved and not on the meanings or
functions. This does not mean the students do not
understand the sentence, but it would still be possible for
them to understand the structure without their
understanding the meaning as this non sense sentence
shows:
Teacher: John manles to his folta every wate.
Students: He is mandling his folta now.
Nor is it merely a question of understanding the individual
words used. The students can also mindlessly carry out the
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requirements of this drill without understanding the complex
array of meaning which the two sentences convey.
In addition to this purely grammatical meaning, there is
another level at which we can interpret any utterance. We
call this level the level of functional or notional meaning.
These terms are used often interchangeably and you will
come across both terms in your reading. Some writers make
a slight distinction between the two, when we speak very
often it carry out actions. For example, I promise, give an
opinion, complain, suggest and so on. These are some of the
things we can do with language and are called language
functions or notions. We use the grammatical forms of the
language in order to express these functions. For example:
Aren’t you rather hungry?
If we are asked to describe this utterance grammatically, we
should say it is an interrogative. But its functional meaning
necessarily interrogative, it may also function as a question
or it may be an order to be served with food. For each
function of grammar for ‘Aren’t you hungry?’ will remain the
same. One language form can express several different
functions.
There are some useful techniques associated with grammar-
translation method. There are some for the analytic and
synthetic techniques of grammar-translation method. The
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students translate the reading passage from the target
language into their native language. Then the reading
passage
provides the focus for several classes, vocabulary and
grammatical structure in passage.
Since learning of language is most commonly identified with
acquiring mastery of its grammatical system, it is not
surprising that most of the courses have grammatical or
structural organisms. Of course, there is numerous variety in
the ways in which language may be presented in
grammatically structured teaching material.
While admitting that in practice these approaches are not
necessarily mutually exclusive, regarding them from the
linguistic point of view. These can be grouped into two:
Synthetic
Analytic
Any actual course or syllabus could be placed some where
on the continuum between the wholly synthetic and the
wholly analytic. A synthetic language strategy is one in
which different parts of language are taught separately. So
that acquisition is a process of gradual accumulation of the
parts until the whole structure of the language has been
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built up. In planning the syllabus for such teaching, the
global language has been broken down into limited list of
lexical items. The learner’s task is to re-synthesize the
language that has been broken down into a large number of
smaller pieces in the aim of making his language easier. It is
only in the final stage of learning that the global language is
re-established.
In analytic approaches there is no attempt at this careful
linguistic control of the learning environment. Components
are not seen as building blocks. Much greater variety of
linguistic structure is permitted from the beginning blocks
which have to be progressively accumulated. The learner’s
task is to approximate his own linguistic behaviour more and
more closely to the global language.
SYNTHETIC & ANALATICAL APPROACH.
The majority of language courses and syllabus are and
probably always have been constructed on synthetic lines.
Language learning is a complex task. However, a complex
task can usually be broken down into a series off simpler
tasks. In recent years and particularly under the influence of
advances of psychology of learning the identification of the
smaller learning task has been carried out with increasing
linguistic sophistication. The tasks are identified with item
derived from description of the language. In those courses
which are commonly labeled ‘traditional’ the control of new
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linguistics items introduced in any one text-book lesson. You
facilitate learning if you present the learner with pieces of
language that have been pre-digested according to the
category found in a description of the language.
As the methods of teaching have changed, so have the
process by which language is selected and graded. In the
case of older text-books decisions appear to have been
taken on a more or less subjective basis. At least there is in
contrast, the language teaching. Literature of past thirty
years or so is full of discussion of the various factors to be
taken into consideration deciding which forms of language
were to be taught and in which order.
Although in most modern courses control of vocabulary and
of grammatical structure go hand in hand. The methodology
was first direction of vocabulary. The aim was to see that the
vocabulary contents of courses consisted of, in short, the
most useful words. The criteria that have been used in
establishing the relative usefulness of the words are
frequency, range, availability, familiarity and coverage. The
notion of coverage is self-evident. Range consists of a
distribution of a lexical item over a number of different types
of text. Availability accounts for lexical items which may not
be particularly frequent but which are rapidly available to
the meaning.
24
Pedagogic considerations are not ignored in the process of
selection. Some items will be ignored and some will be
promoted because they are particularly useful in the
classroom situation. The process of selection therefore is
less important than that of ordering with the grammar the
purpose is rather different. The ultimate goal of a general
goal of a general course will be to each virtually the whole of
the grammatical system.
The syllabus that results from the application of these
criteria will be a grammatical syllabus. The use of a
grammatical syllabus can be majority of syllabuses and
publishers. The vocabulary is secondary in importance and
certainly rarely provided the basic structure of a course. The
view is widely held that major part of the grammatical
systematical system has been learned.
What is learned through a grammatical syllabus is of value
to the learner. It is rather suggested that this is not the
necessary or the most effective way of designing language
courses and that, in any way language learning is not
complete when the content of a grammatical syllabus has
been inter4The view is widely held that major part of the
grammatical systematical system has been learned.
What is learned through a grammatical syllabus is of value
to the learner. It is rather suggested that this is not the
necessary or the most effective way of designing language
25
courses and that, in any way language learning is not
complete when the content of a grammatical syllabus has
been interested.
One danger in basing a course on a systematic presentation
of the elements of linguistic structure is that forms will tend
to be taught because they are there. Sometimes, irregular
verbs are introduced for the sake of completeness even
where they are likely to be of little use of the learning.
One characteristic of grammatical syllabuses that what has
to be learnt is identified as a form and rarely as a set of
meanings. Most syllabuses are in fact an inventory of
grammatical forms. It is very rare for grammatical meanings
also to be specified. The assumption seems to be that form
and meaning are in one-to-one relation, so that the meaning
to learn in association with a particular grammatical form
would be self-evident.
A greater difficulty and one to which there is not an obvious
answer lies in the fact that the syllabus is an ordered list of
structures. If the content is expressed by use of grammatical
terminology, units will be identified by such labels as the
indefinite articles, the past tense, transitive sentence,
adverbs of frequency of course the fundamental facts of
syntax are almost inevitably taught but there remain a good
deal that is not.
26
The most significant thing about this is that the teacher will
normally be understood as he intends to be understood. If
this was not so then can communication take place? For
learners, probably, the most striking way in which the
knowledge of language developed through a grammatical
syllabus fails to measure up to their communicational needs
is in its lack of situational relevance. They may have learnt
through oral active method and have command of
grammatical structure.
I should add that there is language teaching based on a
grammatical syllabus, which is sometimes called situational.
The label is most commonly applied to a method of teaching
in which language is always taught in association with some
physical characteristics of the class room. Objects, pictures
and activities are used to illustrate and give meaning to
grammatical and lexical forms. Tenses for example are often
presented in association with some physical characteristics
the class room.
It is clear however; that the situations referred to here is a
pedagogic, class room situation, not situation of natural
language use. It, therefore, cannot meet the natural
situational needs. A grammatical syllabus can also be
situationalized by presenting language in the syllabus form
of dialogue. Therefore, on grounds of linguistic and
motivation, there are reasons for looking an alternative to
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the grammatical syllabus as a strategy for structuring the
learners’ experience of language.
Analytic approaches are behavioural. They are organized in
terms of purposes for which people are learning language
and the kinds of language performance that are necessary to
meet these purposes. The problem in putting an analytic
approach into practice of one of the putting and finding way
to express what it is that people do with language so that
the unavoidable process of limitation or selection can take
place. This approach is therefore in contrast with those
approaches that rely more upon this capacity of synthesize.
Qn.5. Define the term “ Sociolinguistics” and explain
the relationship between sociology and linguistics.
LINGUISTICS
28
It is the scientific study of language, encompassing a
number of sub-fields. An important topical division is
between the study of language structure (grammar) and the
study of meaning (semantics). Grammar encompasses
morphology (the formation and composition of words),
syntax (the rules that determine how words combine into
phrases and sentences) and phonology (the study of sound
systems and abstract sound units). Phonetics is a related
branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of
speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they
are produced and perceived.
Over the twentieth century, following the work of Noam
Chomsky, linguistics came to be dominated by the
Generativist school, which is chiefly concerned with
explaining how human beings acquire language and the
biological constraints on this acquisition. Generative theory
is modularist in character. While this remains the dominant
paradigm[2, Chomsky's writings have also gathered much
criticism, and other linguistic theories have increasingly
gained popularity; cognitive linguistics is a prominent
example. There are many sub-fields in linguistics, which may
or may not be dominated by a particular theoretical
approach: evolutionary linguistics attempts to account for
the origins of language; historical linguistics explores
language change and sociolinguistics looks at the relation
between linguistic variation and social structures.
29
A variety of intellectual disciplines are relevant to the study
of language. Although certain linguists have downplayed the
relevance of some other fields, linguistics — like other
sciences — is highly interdisciplinary and draws on work
from such fields as psychology, informatics, computer
science, philosophy, biology, human anatomy, neuroscience,
sociology, anthropology, and acoustics. Fundamental
concerns and divisions
Linguistics concerns itself with describing and explaining the
nature of human language. Relevant to this are the
questions of what is universal to language, how language
can vary, and how human beings come to know languages.
All humans (setting aside extremely pathological cases)
achieve competence in whatever language is spoken (or
signed, in the case of signed languages) around them when
growing up, with apparently little need for explicit conscious
instruction. While non-humans acquire their own
communication systems, they do not acquire human
language in this way (although many non-human animals
can learn to respond to language, or can even be trained to
use it to a degree. Therefore, linguists assume, the ability to
acquire and use language is an innate, biologically-based
potential of modern human beings, similar to the ability to
walk. There is no consensus, however, as to the extent of
this innate potential, or its domain-specificity (the degree to
which such innate abilities are specific to language), with
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some theorists claiming that there is a very large set of
highly abstract and specific binary settings coded into the
human brain, while others claim that the ability to learn
language is a product of general human cognition. It is,
however, generally agreed that there are no strong genetic
differences underlying the differences between languages:
an individual will acquire whatever language(s) they are
exposed to as a child, regardless of parentage or ethnic
origin.
Many linguists would agree that these divisions overlap
considerably, and the independent significance of each of
these areas is not universally acknowledged. Regardless of
any particular linguist's position, each area has core
concepts that foster significant scholarly inquiry and
research.
SOCIOLOGY:
(from Latin: socius, "companion"; and the suffix -ology, "the
study of", is the scientific or systematic study of society,
including patterns of social relations, social stratification,
social interaction, and culture Areas studied in sociology
range from the analysis of brief contacts between
anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global
social interaction. Numerous fields within the discipline
concentrate on how and why people are organized in
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society, either as individuals or as members of associations,
groups, and institutions. Sociology is considered a branch of
the social sciences.
Sociological research provides educators, planners,
lawmakers, administrators, developers, business leaders,
and people interested in resolving social problems and
formulating public policy with rationales for the actions that
they take.
Sociology later emerged as a scientific discipline in the early
19th century as an academic response to the challenges of
modernity and modernization, such as industrialization and
urbanization. Sociologists hope not only to understand what
holds social groups together, but also to develop responses
to social disintegration and exploitation.
The term "sociologie" was first used in 1780 by the French
essayist Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès in an unpublished
manuscript. The term was used again and popularized by the
French thinker Auguste Comte in 1838. Comte had earlier
used the term 'social physics', but that term had been
appropriated by others, notably Adolphe Quetelet Comte
hoped to unify all studies of humankind - including history,
psychology and economics. His own sociological scheme was
typical of the 19th century; he believed all human life had
passed through the same distinct historical stages (theology,
metaphysics, positive science) and that, if one could grasp
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this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social ills.
Sociology was to be the 'queen of positive sciences. Thus,
Comte has come to be viewed as the "Father of Sociology".
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
It is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,
including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the
way language is used. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a
considerable degree with pragmatics.
It also studies how lects differ between groups separated by
certain social variables, e.g., ethnicity, religion, status,
gender, level of education, age, etc., and how creation and
adherence to these rules is used to categorize individuals in
social class or socio-economic classes. As the usage of a
language varies from place to place (dialect), language
usage varies among social classes, and it is these
sociolectsthat sociolinguistics studies.
The social aspects of language were in the modern sense
first studied by Indian and Japanese linguists in the 1930s,
and also by Gauchat in Switzerland in the early 1900s, but
none received much attention in the West until much later.
The study of the social motivation of language change, on
the other hand, has its foundation in the wave model of the
late 19th century.
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Applications of sociolinguistics
For example, a sociolinguist might determine through study
of social attitudes that a particular vernacular would not be
considered appropriate language use in a business or
professional setting. Sociolinguists might also study the
grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, and other aspects of this
sociolect much as dialectologists would study the same for a
regional dialect.
The study of language variation is concerned with social
constraints determining language in its contextual
environment. Code-switching is the term given to the use of
different varieties of language in different social situations.
William Labov is often regarded as the founder of the study
of sociolinguistics. He is especially noted for introducing the
quantitative study of language variation and change, making
the sociology of language into a scientific discipline.
Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of language in that the
focus of sociolinguistics is the effect of the society on the
language, while the latter's focus is on the language's effect
on the society.
Fundamental Concepts in Sociolinguistics
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While the study of sociolinguistics is very broad, there are a
few fundamental concepts on which many sociolinguistic
inquiries.
Differences according to class
Sociolinguistics as a field distinct from dialectology was
pioneered through the study of language variation in urban
areas. Whereas dialectology studies the geographic
distribution of language variation, sociolinguistics focuses on
other sources of variation, among them class. Class and
occupation are among the most important linguistic markers
found in society. One of the fundamental findings of
sociolinguistics, which has been hard to disprove, is that
class and language variety are related. Members of the
working class tend to speak less standard language, while
the lower, middle, and upper middle class will in turn speak
closer to the standard. However, the upper class, even
members of the upper middle class, may often speak 'less'
standard than the middle class. This is because not only
class, but class aspirations, are important.
Class aspiration
Studies, have shown that social aspirations influence speech
patterns. This is also true of class aspirations. In the process
of wishing to be associated with a certain class (usually the
upper class and upper middle class) people who are moving
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in that direction socio-economically will adjust their speech
patterns to sound like them. However, not being native
upper class speakers, they often hypercorrect which involves
overcorrecting their speech to the point of introducing new
errors. The same is true for individuals moving down in
socio-economic status.
Social language codes
Basil Bernstein, a well-known British socio-linguist, devised in
his book, 'Elaborated and restricted codes: their social
origins and some consequences,' a social code system which
he used to classify the various speech patterns for different
social classes He claimed that members of the middle class
have ways of organizing their speech which are
fundamentally very different from the ways adopted by the
working class
Restricted code
In Basil Bernstein's theory, the restricted code was an
example of the speech patterns used by the working-class
He stated that this type of code allows strong bonds
between group members, who tend to behave largely on the
basis of distinctions such as 'male', 'female', 'older', and
'younger'. This social group also uses language in a way
which brings people together, and members often do not
need to be explicit about meaning, as their shared
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knowledge and common understanding often bring them
together in a way which other social language groups do not
experience. The difference with the restricted code is the
emphasis on 'we' as a social group, which fosters greater
solidarity than an emphasis on 'I'.
Differences according to age groups
There are several different types of age-based variation one
may see within a population. They are: vernacular of a
subgroup with membership typically characterized by a
specific age range, age-graded variation, and indications of
linguistic change in progress.
One example of subgroup vernacular is the speech of street
youth. Just as street youth dress differently from the "norm",
they also often have their own "language". The reasons for
this are the following:
To enhance their own cultural identity
To identify with each other,
To exclude others, and
To invoke feelings of fear or admiration from the
outside world.
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Strictly speaking, this is not truly age-based, since it does
not apply to all individuals of that age bracket within the
community.
People tend to use linguistic forms that were prevalent when
they reached adulthood. So, in the case of linguistic change
in progress, one would expect to see variation over a
broader range of ages. Bright (1997) provides an example
taken from American English where there is an on-going
merger of the vowel sounds in such pairs of words as
'caught' and 'cot' Examining the speech across several
generations of a single family, one would find the
grandparents' generation would never or rarely merge these
two vowel sounds; their children's generation may on
occasion, particularly in quick or informal speech; while their
grandchildren's generation would merge these two vowels
uniformly. This is the basis of the apparent-time hypothesis
where age-based variation is taken as an indication of
linguistic change in progress.
Differences according to gender
Men and women, on average, tend to use slightly different
language styles. These differences tend to be quantitative
rather than qualitative. That is, to say that women make
more minimal responses than men is akin to saying that
men are taller than women (i.e., men are on average taller
than women, but some women are taller than some men).
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The initial identification of a women's register was who
argued that the style of language served to maintain
women's (inferior) role in society . A later refinement of this
argument was that gender differences in language reflected
a power difference . However, both these perspectives have
the language style of men as normative, implying that
women's style is inferior..
Questions
Men and women differ in their use of questions in
conversations. For men, a question is usually a genuine
request for information whereas with women it can often be
a rhetorical means of engaging the other’s conversational
contribution or of acquiring attention from others
conversationally involved, techniques associated with a
collaborative approach to language use Therefore women
use questions more frequently. In writing, however, both
genders use rhetorical questions as literary devices. For
example, Mark Twain used them in "A War Prayer" to
provoke the reader to question his actions and beliefs.
Self-disclosure
Female tendencies toward self-disclosure, i.e., sharing their
problems and experiences with others, often to offer
sympathy contrasts with male tendencies to non-self
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disclosure and professing advice or offering a solution when
confronted with another’s problems.
CONCLUSION
Sociolinguistics is closely related to both sociology and
general linguistics. It is also linked to such disciplines as
geography and social-anthropolog, but our concern in this
assignment was exclusively with the first two. So, in
conclusiono we may rightly maintain that sociolinguistics is
shared between sociology and linguistics.
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Q:4 How are three approaches to syllabus design:
grammatical, social and national different from each
other? Which aproacch is best in our educational
system.
Ans:
Introduction
The purpose of this assignment is to examine the currents
running through syllabus design and to highlight the issues
relevant to teachers considering creating their own
curriculum.. It will hopefully also help instructors better
evaluate their own programs and course books. It is
therefore concerned with linguistic theory and theories of
language learning and how they are applied to the
classroom.
In the past, the focus of syllabuses has shifted from structure
to situations, functions and notions to topics and tasks. In
fact,with the development of the latter it is palpable that
"the traditional distinction between syllabus design and
methodology has become blurred". So, how should we
initially define syllabus?
Syllabus: A Definition
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A syllabus is an expression of opinion on the nature of
language and learning; it acts as a guide for both teacher
and learner by providing some goals to be attained.
Hutchinson and Waters define syllabus as follows:
At its simplest level a syllabus can be described as a
statement of what is to be learnt It reflects of language and
linguistic performance.
This is a rather traditional interpretation of syllabus focusing
as it does on outcomes rather than process. However, a
syllabus can also be seen as a "summary of the content to
which learners will be exposed". It is seen as an
approximation of what will be taught and that it cannot
accurately predict what will be learnt. Next, we will discuss
the various types of approaches available to course
designers and the language assumptions they make.
The Structural Approach
Historically, the most prevalent of syllabus type is perhaps
the grammatical syllabus in which the selection and grading
of the content is based on the complexity and simplicity of
grammatical items. The learner is expected to master each
structural step and add it to her grammar collection. As such
the focus is on the outcomes or the product.
One problem facing the syllabus designer pursuing a
grammatical order to sequencing input is that the ties
connecting the structural items maybe rather feeble. A more
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fundamental criticism is that the grammatical syllabus
focuses on only one aspect of language, namely grammar,
whereas in truth there exist many more aspects to language.
Finally, recent corpus based research suggests there is a
divergence between the grammar of the spoken and of the
written language; raising implications for the grading of
content in grammar based syllabuses.
The Situational Approach
It is suggested that the framework for most foreign language
teacching is provided by a grammatical syllabus and that
dissatisfaction with this shows itself most readily n concern
that the language acquires in this way is not adequate for
the sittuational needs. It is obvious then that thte most
commonly proposed alternative is to take situational need to
take as a starting point and thereby to construct a
situational syllabus to construct to rreplace a grammatical
syllabus. It is the obly other kind of syllabus that is used to
replace the grammatical structure to construct teaching
material.
The argumentt for the situational grammar is fairly straight
forward. Although languages are described generral
systems, language is always used as situational and social
context and cannot be fully understood witthout that
context. Our choice of lingistic form may be restricted to
some features of social situations and in any way we need a
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sport of language to face any type of situations. There
instead of learning subjecct and their contents. We should
take account of learner and his needs. It is more efficient
forces because we are concerned with what the learner need
and what is relevant to the learner.it is more motivating
because it is learner rather than subject centered. The
distinction betweeen language for learning and languae for
use will disappear. Units in the syllabus will have situational
instead off grammatical tables.
In order to carry out behavioural analysis that underlie the
sittuational syllabus. We must have a set of parameters for
describing the significant features of situations.
The situational courses do exist. They consist of learning
units with label like ‘ At the post office’. Buying a heater
ticket. Asking the way and so on. In all probability they are
successful in what they have placed. But there is a big
problem to think whetehr we take them as a model for
teaching organisatiions of language taeching. The difficulty
language teaching. The difficulty centres on what is meant
by situation.
The Notional/Functional Approach
Wilkins' criticism of structural and situational approaches lies
in the fact that they answer only the 'how' or 'when' and
'where' . Instead, he enquires "what it is they communicate
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through language" . Thus, the starting point for a syllabus is
the communicative purpose and conceptual meaning of
language i.e. notions and functions, as opposed to
grammatical items and situational elements which remain
but are relegated to a subsidiary role.
In order to establish objectives, the needs of the learners will
have to be analyzed by the various types of communication
in which the learner has to confront. Consequently, needs
analysis has an association with notional-functional
syllabuses. Although needs analysis implies a focus on the
learner, critics of this approach suggest that a new list has
replaced the old one. Where once structural/situational items
were used a new list consisting of notions and functions has
become the main focus in a syllabus. White claims that
"language functions do not usually occur in isolation" and
there are also difficulties of selecting and grading function
and form. Clearly, the task of deciding whether a given
function (i.e. persuading), is easier or more difficult than
another (i.e. approving), makes the task harder to approach.
The above approaches belong to the product-oriented
category of syllabuses. An alternative path to curriculum
design would be to adopt process oriented principles, which
assume that language can be learnt experientially as
opposed to the step-by-step procedure of the synthetic
approach.
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Initially, several questions must be posed. Do you want a
product or process oriented syllabus? Will the course be
teacher or learner led? What are the goals of the program
and the needs of your students? This leads to an
examination of the degree to which the
In light of this background, and given the monolingual nature
of Japanese society and the lack of exposure to the target
language outside the classroom, a task based strategy with
a blend of approaches and emphasis on communicative
learning, may well be one of the most suitable types of
syllabus design on offer for language learners in Japan.
Conclusion
Clearly, there is a vast amount of material to disseminate
when considering syllabus design. The numerous approaches
touched on here all offer valuable insights into creating a
language program. The grammatical, situational and
functional-notional, all have objectives to be attained, a
content to be processed and learnt. The foundations of the
product syllabuses remain fundamentally similar, whereas
the underlying assumptions about language and language
learning from the analytic approaches differ greatly: process
type syllabuses assert that learning a language is transient
and cannot be itemized ; pedagogical procedure takes
precedence over content.
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If our assumptions about the nature of linguistics and
language learning is one of "language as communication"
then a syllabus based around activities and tasks which
promote real and meaningful communication will seem
advantageous. We have shown that the false beginner in
Japan will have learned structural rules to a surprisingly
complex degree, yet may find it difficult to use, or indeed,
may never have had an opportunity to use the language
learned. Consequently, the belief that learning is facilitated
by activities that include real communication, may be the
most suitable belief to adopt in the Japanese classroom.
Further points to consider when critically reviewing a
syllabus are the objectives of the course as well as the needs
of the learners. Ultimately, and perhaps ideally, a hybrid
syllabus will result purely due to pragmatic reasons.
It is wise to take an eclectic approach, taking what is useful
from each theory and trusting also in the evidence of your
own experience as a teacher.
Thus, to what extent has an integration of the various
approaches taken place? Does the syllabus specification
include all aspects? If yes, how is priority established? These
questions must also form part of the criteria when designing
or assessing your own syllabus.
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