Reflection on Teaching Methodology
Reflective Assignment on Personal Teaching Methodology
Since the advent of language learning as an academic discipline, there have been gradual shifts in language teaching methodology from Grammar Translation, to Audiolingualism, and those applied in more recent and well known Communicative Language Teaching. However, ELT practitioners have put forward an array of opinions, arguments and concerns over the issue that which of the suggested methodologies works best in language teaching. But, a variety of factors, such as official language policies, the role of L2 in a distinct speech community, learners’ need and their linguistic background, cultural and economical state of the institutions, teachers’ background, students’ previous linguistic competence, etc. affect the selection of methodology – this is why a single methodology was not effective enough to quench the thirst of language learning of all the time and circumstances. Consequently, different theorists came up with different schools of thought which influenced the beliefs of language teaching of the time.
For me, the most relevant experience is that a method should no longer be a prescription made from a linguist, rather it should be a pattern of activities made by a distinct language teacher in an account of his/her classroom scenario. Moreover, all the methods are best for their corresponding situations, as Prabhu (1990, p.161) states ‘.....different methods are best for different teaching contexts; that all methods are partially true or valid; and that the notion of good and bad methods is itself misguided’. The present assignment will not delve into different methodologies of language teaching but is intended to account for my personal teaching approaches and criteria in implementing methodology (based on my personal teaching and learning experience),
Starting from my own learning experience, for me, learning English was merely a subject to pass in the examinations. Emphasizing the different
Since the advent of language learning as an academic discipline, there have been gradual shifts in language teaching methodology from Grammar Translation, to Audiolingualism, and those applied in more recent and well known Communicative Language Teaching. However, ELT practitioners have put forward an array of opinions, arguments and concerns over the issue that which of the suggested methodologies works best in language teaching. But, a variety of factors, such as official language policies, the role of L2 in a distinct speech community, learners’ need and their linguistic background, cultural and economical state of the institutions, teachers’ background, students’ previous linguistic competence, etc. affect the selection of methodology – this is why a single methodology was not effective enough to quench the thirst of language learning of all the time and circumstances. Consequently, different theorists came up with different schools of thought which influenced the beliefs of language teaching of the time.
For me, the most relevant experience is that a method should no longer be a prescription made from a linguist, rather it should be a pattern of activities made by a distinct language teacher in an account of his/her classroom scenario. Moreover, all the methods are best for their corresponding situations, as Prabhu (1990, p.161) states ‘.....different methods are best for different teaching contexts; that all methods are partially true or valid; and that the notion of good and bad methods is itself misguided’. The present assignment will not delve into different methodologies of language teaching but is intended to account for my personal teaching approaches and criteria in implementing methodology (based on my personal teaching and learning experience),
Starting from my own learning experience, for me, learning English was merely a subject to pass in the examinations. Emphasizing the different
Bibliography: Hedge, T., 2000. Teaching and learning in the language classroom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kelly, L., 1969. Centuries of language teaching. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House. Littlewood, W., 1981.Communicative language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. McKay, S. L., 2002. Teaching English as an international language: rethinking goals and approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Prabhu, N., 1990. There is no best method – why? TESOL Quarterly, 24 (2), pp.161 – 176 Rechard, J. (n.d.). 30 years of TEFL/TESL: a personal reflection available online. http.//professorjackrichard.com/pdfs/30-years-of-TEFL.pdf [Accessed 25 October 2013]. Richards, J. and Rodgers, T., 2001. Approaches and methods in language teaching (2ndedition), Cambridge: Cambridge University. Richards, J. C. and Renandya.W.A., 2002. Methodology in language teaching: an anthology of current practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Stern, H. H., 1992. Issues and options in language teaching.Oxford: Oxford University Press.