1. LEARNING THEORIES
And APPROACHES

2. Some background issues:
 ELT has been influenced by a
vast array of THEORIES.
Theoretical debate continues up
to this day.
 The Grammar Translation
Method.
 The Direct Method.
 The Audio-Lingual Method.

3. And some more…
 The Silent Way.
 Desuggestopeadia.NLP.
 TPR.The Natural Approach.
 CLT./The Lexical approach.
 Content-based,Task-based and
Participatory approaches.CLIL.
 SBI, MI, Cooperative Learning.
 Different Learning Styles.

4. A. Pulling Habits out of Rats.
 Behaviourism.Conditioning. Two
psychologists: Watson and
Raynor(1920). A linguist, Bernard
Skinner (1957), Verbal
Behaviour.Experiment with Albert.
 3-stage procedure:
STIMULUS,RESPONSE,
REINFORCEMENT.
 AUDIO LINGUAL
METHOD.Controlled practice.

5. Noam Chomsky

(1959) PhD Thesis against Skinner. If all
language is learnt behaviour, how come
children produce language they have never
heard before?
 “Blueprints for grammatical rules”, Pinker
(1994).The language instinct.
 Chomsky “Black Box”,LAD,Principles and
Parameters,Binding, Minimalism.
 Impact on ELT: Carrol, Cognitive Code
Method.(1970).

6. METHOD:
 I. APPROACH:  -An account of the
 A. A theory of the conditions that
nature of allow for
language. successful use of
these processes.
 B.A theory about
the nature of
language learning:
 -An account of the
psycholinguistic
and cognitive
processes involved
in language
learning.

7. II. Design.
 a. The general and specific
objectives of the method.
 b. A syllabus model.
 c.Types of learning and teaching
activities.
 d. Learner roles.
 e. Teacher roles.
 f. The role of instructional materials.

8. III. Procedure:
 Classroom techniques, practices and
behaviour observ ed when the
method is used.
 Resources in terms of time, space ,
and equipment used by the teacher.
 Interactional patterns used in the
lesson.
 Tactics and strategies used by
teacher and learners when the
method is being used.

9. LANGUAGE LEARNING will
take care of itself.
 Drills, repetition, controlled practice.
Does it work at all? Does Teaching
actually work?
 EXPOSURE, MOTIVATION,
OPPORTUNITIES FOR USE.
 Dick Allright (1970). University of
Essex.Real tasks, communication
games.”If the language teacher’s management
activities are directed exclusively at involving the
learners into solving communication problems in the
target language, then language learning will take
care of itself” (Allright, 1979:170)

10. Other views:
 Stephen Krashen (1980).
Acquisition and Learning.Roughly-
tuned, finely-tuned input.The
affective filter.
 Dave Willis (1996). Fallacy: the idea
that controlled practice leads to a
mastery of grammar.
 But, we should consider the context
in which our students learn!

11. Debate cannot be divorced
from learners:
 Students’age.
 Level of English.
 Motivation.
 Places in which learning takes place.
 Exposure.
 Small children: avoid grammar
teaching.
 CLT/ Task-based. The post-methods
era.

12. NOTICING
 CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING helps
language acquisition:accuracy and fluency.
 It goes from OUTPUT to INPUT, a different
view from Krashen’s.
 Teacher’s draw attention to language use/
brain processing.
 Structuring and restructuring language will
preceed fluent language production.
 Hypothesis testing: Batstone (1994)
 Creative language use will proceed in due
course.

13. THE AFFECTIVE VARIABLE
 Personal response to learning is
central to success.
 Self-esteem is needed to help
cognitive processes.
 Earl Stevick(1996): alienations.
 Krashen(1985): Affective Filter
Hypothesis.
 Teaching the whole person:
humanistic teaching.

14. Learning a language:
 Personal identity.
 Self-knowledge.
 Feelings, emotions.
 Mario Rinvolucri: “Activities to
exteriorize their own internal
text”.
 Be careful not to do anything
that may damage their self-
esteem.

15. Discovery learning
 Discover things by themselves
rather than impose rules, as in
traditional grammar teaching.
 It is culture bound.