INSTRUCTION: Read the text and answer the item.

THE NATURE OF APPROACHES AND METHODS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

In describing methods, the difference between a philosophy of language teaching at the level of theory and principles, and a set of derived procedures for teaching a language, is central in an attempt to clarify this difference, a scheme was proposed by the American applied linguist Edward Anthony in 1963. He identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed approach, method, and technique.

The arrangement is hierarchical. The organizational key is that techniques carry out a method which is consistent with an approach…

… An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic. It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught…

… Method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon the selected approach. An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural.

Within one approach, there can be many methods…

… A technique is implementational – that which actually takes place in a classroom. It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an immediate objective. Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well. (Anthony 1963:63-7)

According to Anthony's model, approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs about language and language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory is put into practice and at which choices are made about the particular skills to be taught, the content to be taught and the order in which the content will be presented; technique is the level at which classroom procedures are described.

Anthony's model serves as a useful way of distinguishing between different degrees of abstraction and specificity found in different language teaching proposals.

(RICHARDS, J. C. and ROGERS, T. S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 1986, Cambridge: CUP.)

Considering the information in the text, analyze the sentences below.

I - A technique is a specific trick used to fulfill an immediate goal.

II - Method and technique are both axiomatic.

III - A philosophy of language teaching and a set of derived procedures for teaching a language are exactly the same things.

It is correct what is said in

INSTRUCTION: Read the text and answer the item.

READING AS PROCESS

A reader-centered approach is evidenced in reading instruction which focuses, first, on what the reader brings to reading in schematic world knowledge and language knowledge and, second, on their ability and willingness to draw on productive strategies in the course of reading. More traditional reading pedagogy emphasized comprehension in the form of the presentation of text followed by post-reading questions on the text. Process approaches attend, first, to the need to prime the reader with new knowledge or prompt the reader to recover existing knowledge (in advance of reading the text) and, second, to make maximum use of cognitive and linguistic resources during text processing. This involves providing 'pre-reading' tasks (such as brainstorming, semantic mapping, true-false or agree-disagree tasks), as well as 'while-reading' tasks (such as margin prompts, encouraging the linking or cross-referencing of one part of a text to another, or encouraging first skim readings followed by closer, more focused ones). Many contemporary coursebooks (e.g. Rossner 1988; Murphy and Cooper 1995) offer a range of such tasks.

A key principle in the design of these tasks is the encouragement of flexible and reflective reading. Flexibility might be promoted by devising tasks encouraging readers to read a range of texts in different ways (e.g. a close detailed reading for some genres and a scanned and later more focused reading for others). Reflective reading, where the reader is engaged with the text, might be encouraged by the interspersion of questions or prompts during the text to encourage interrogation of text. More recent studies of reader strategies (e.g. Janzen and Stoller 1998) invite readers to reflect more specifically on their own reading strategies and to judge the effectiveness of those of other readers.

(WALLACE, C. Reading. In: Carter, R. and Nunan, D. (Eds.) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 2001, Cambridge, CUP.)

In the following extract: (…encouraging first skim readings followed by closer, more focused ones)., the pronoun ones refers to

INSTRUCTION: Read the text and answer the item.

READING AS PROCESS

A reader-centered approach is evidenced in reading instruction which focuses, first, on what the reader brings to reading in schematic world knowledge and language knowledge and, second, on their ability and willingness to draw on productive strategies in the course of reading. More traditional reading pedagogy emphasized comprehension in the form of the presentation of text followed by post-reading questions on the text. Process approaches attend, first, to the need to prime the reader with new knowledge or prompt the reader to recover existing knowledge (in advance of reading the text) and, second, to make maximum use of cognitive and linguistic resources during text processing. This involves providing 'pre-reading' tasks (such as brainstorming, semantic mapping, true-false or agree-disagree tasks), as well as 'while-reading' tasks (such as margin prompts, encouraging the linking or cross-referencing of one part of a text to another, or encouraging first skim readings followed by closer, more focused ones). Many contemporary coursebooks (e.g. Rossner 1988; Murphy and Cooper 1995) offer a range of such tasks.

A key principle in the design of these tasks is the encouragement of flexible and reflective reading. Flexibility might be promoted by devising tasks encouraging readers to read a range of texts in different ways (e.g. a close detailed reading for some genres and a scanned and later more focused reading for others). Reflective reading, where the reader is engaged with the text, might be encouraged by the interspersion of questions or prompts during the text to encourage interrogation of text. More recent studies of reader strategies (e.g. Janzen and Stoller 1998) invite readers to reflect more specifically on their own reading strategies and to judge the effectiveness of those of other readers.

(WALLACE, C. Reading. In: Carter, R. and Nunan, D. (Eds.) Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. 2001, Cambridge, CUP.)

Considering what the author says about reading as a process, mark T for the true statements and F for the false ones.

( ) In a reader-centered approach, the tasks encourage the students to reflect, thus they become actively involved in the process.

( ) If the students reflect on what they are doing, they probably will feel encouraged.

( ) Process approaches are not suitable for beginners because students must have existing knowledge of the foreign language.

( ) Reader-centered approaches rely heavily on what the student brings to the classroom, both in terms of language (native and foreign) and all other experiences.

Mark the correct sequence.