The nature of approaches and methods 2

Monday, March 19, 2012

Design

 Design is the level of method analysis in which we consider:

     v  What the objectives of a method are

v  How language content is selected and organized within the method (the syllabus)

v  The types of learning tasks and teaching activities the method advocates

v  The roles of learners

v  The roles of teachers

v  The role of instructional materials

Objectives

“Learning is not seen as the means of accumulating but as the means of becoming a more proficient learner in whatever one is engaged in” (Gattegno). The degree to which a method has process-oriented or product-oriented objectives may be revealed in how much emphasis is placed on vocabulary acquisition and grammatical proficiency and in how grammatical or pronunciation errors are treated in the method.

Content choice and organization: the syllabus

Decisions about the choice of language content relate both to subject matter and linguistic matter. In simple terms, one makes decisions about what to talk about (subject matter) and how to talk about it (linguistic matter).

By tradition the term syllabus has been used to refer to the form in which linguistic content is specified in a course or method. Inevitably the term has been more closely associated with methods that are product centered rather than those that are process centered.

Types of learning and teaching activities

The activity types that a method advocates often serve to distinguish methods. Differences in activity types in methods may also involve different arrangements and groupings of learners.

Learner roles

The design of an instructional system will be considerably influenced by how learners are regarded. A method reflects explicit or implicit responses to questions concerning the learners’ contribution to the learning process. The learner is seen as processor, performer, initiator, problem solver.

Teacher roles

The role of the teacher will ultimately reflect both the objectives of the methods and the learning theory on which the method is predicated, since the success of a method may depend on the degree to which the teacher can provide the content or create the conditions for successful language learning.

The role of instructional materials

The instructional materials in their turn further specify subject matter content, even where no syllabus exists, and define or suggest the intensity of coverage for syllabus items, allocating the amount of time, attention, and detail particular syllabus items or tasks require. Instructional materials also define or imply the day-to-day learning objectives that collectively constitute the goals of the syllabus.

The role of instructional materials within a method or instructional system will reflect decisions concerning the primary goal of materials, the form of materials, the relation of materials to other sources of input, and the abilities of teachers.

Procedure

This level describes how a method realizes its approach and design in classroom behavior. Procedure focuses on the way a method handles the presentation, practice, and feedback phases of teaching.