Willy A. Renandya

Methodology in Language Teaching: Lesson Planning and Classroom Management

INTRODUCTION The two articles in this section focus on two aspects of a language lesson: planning the lesson and managing learner behavior during a lesson. Planning is often viewed as a key aspect of teaching a successful lesson. During the planning phase, the teacher makes decisions about goals, activities, resources, timing, grouping, and other aspects of the lesson. Harmer (1991) includes the following elements in a lesson plan: a. Description of the class b. Recent work c. Objectives d. Contents (context, activity and class organization, aids, language, possible problems) e. Additional possibilities Even though a lesson may have already been planned (by the textbook writer), a teacher will still need to make decisions that relate to the needs of his or her specific class, adapting the lesson from the book in different ways to make it better suit the class. This process of planning and adaptation is a crucial dimension of teaching because during this process the teacher makes many decisions that are essential for a successful lesson. Planning can be regarded as a process of transformation during which the teacher creates ideas for a lesson based on understanding of learners needs, problems, and interests, and on the content of the lesson itself. This does not necessarily result in a detailed, written lesson plan. Many teachers teach successful lessons based on mental plans or on brief lesson notes.

Methodology in Language Teaching: Approaches to Teaching

INTRODUCTION The two papers in this section reexamine the notion of methods of teaching and offer complementary perspectives on how the nature of teaching can be understood. Although for much of the twentieth century a primary concern of the language teaching profession was to find more effective methods of language teaching, by the twenty-first century there has been a movement away from a preoccupation with generic teaching methods toward a more complex view of language teaching which encompasses a multifaceted understanding of the teaching and learning processes. Brown traces this movement from a preoccupation with “methods” to a focus on “pedagogy.” The notion of teaching methods has had a long history in language teaching, as is witnessed by the rise and fall of a variety of methods throughout the recent history of language teaching. Some, such as Audiolingualism, became the orthodox teaching methods of the 1970s in many parts of the world. Other guru-led methods such as the Silent Way attracted small but devoted followers in the 1980s and beyond, but attract little attention today. Many teachers have found the notion of methods attractive over the last one hundred or so years, since they offer apparently foolproof systems for classroom instruction and are hence sometimes embraced enthusiastically as a panacea for the “language teaching problem.” The 1970s and 1980s were perhaps the years of greatest enthusiasm for methods.

Methodology in Language Teaching: Syllabus Design and Instructional Materials

INTRODUCTION The processes of curriculum development and syllabus design in language teaching usually involve assessing the needs of learners in a language program, developing goals and objectives, planning a syllabus, selecting teaching approaches and materials, and deciding on assessment procedures and criteria. The papers in this section focus on issues relating to syllabus design and materials development. Since a syllabus reflects a view of language and of language learning, it is not surprising that the nature of language syllabuses has received a great deal of attention in the recent history of language teaching. As communicative approaches to teaching became dominant in the 1980s, attempts have been made to replace grammatical syllabuses with ones that reflect a communicative understanding of language. The move away from grammatically based syllabuses in the 1960s led to a variety of syllabus proposals, including notional-functional, situational, lexical, task-based, and procedural, all of which claim to be examples of a communicative syllabus. Finney examines three major curriculum design models and their origins in underlying educational traditions. She then proposes an integrated, mixed-focus model for curriculum design, within which there is the flexibility to respond to the changing needs of learners and recognition of learners as active participants in the language learning process. The teacher, in this model, is responsible not only for teaching language for communication and language as knowledge, but also for encouraging learners to take responsibility for their own learning so that they develop skills and strategies for continuing to learn outside of the classroom.

Methodology in Language Teaching: Task and Project Work

INTRODUCTION Few would question the need to make language classrooms a place where genuine and meaningful communication takes place and not simply one where students “practice” language for its own sake. This emphasis on making meaning the priority in syllabus design and methodology underlies many aspects of contemporary approaches to language teaching. For example: Communicative Language Teaching : The need to make communication the primary focus of teaching materials and classroom activities has long been a core assumption of communicative methodology. Task-based language teaching : The use of tasks that serve to facilitate meaningful communication and interaction lies at the heart of various proposals for “task-based instruction,” which is an attempt to apply principles from second language acquisition research to language teaching. Content-based instruction : A focus on real-world content and the understanding and communication of information through language is the key to second language learning and teaching in this approach. The articles in this section focus on task work and project work as different ways of creating opportunities for language learning through problem solving, cooperative learning, collaboration, and negotiation of meaning – processes which many believe are central to second language acquisition. Many traditional approaches to language teaching are based on a focus on grammatical form and a cycle of activities that involves presentation of a new language item, practice of the item under controlled conditions, and a production phase in which the learners try out the form in a more communicative context.