Teaching Method

A teaching method comprises the principles and methods used for instruction. Commonly used teaching methods may include class participation, demonstration, recitation, memorization, or combinations of these. The choice of an appropriate teaching method depends largely on the information or skill that is being taught, and it may also be influenced by the aptitude and enthusiasm of the students.

Diversity in Teaching in the Classroom

For effective teaching to take place, a good method must be adopted by a teacher. A teacher has many options when choosing a style by which to teach. The teacher may write lesson plans of their own, borrow plans from other teachers, or search online or within books for lesson plans. When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students' background knowledge, environment, and learning goals. Teachers are aware that students learn in different ways, but almost all children will respond well to praise. Students have different ways of absorbing information and of demonstrating their knowledge. Teachers often use techniques which cater to multiple learning styles to help students retain information and strengthen understanding. A variety of strategies and methods are used to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn. A lesson plan may be carried out in several ways: Questioning, explaining, modeling, collaborating, and demonstrating.

A teaching method that includes questioning is similar to testing. A teacher may ask a series of questions to collect information of what students have learned and what needs to be taught. Testing is another application of questioning. A teacher tests the student on what was previously taught in order to identify if a student has learned the material. Standardized testing is in about every middle school (i.e. Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), Proficiency Test, College entrance Tests (ACT and SAT).

Learning can be done in three ways- Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic. It is important to try and include all three as much as possible into your lessons.

Explaining

This form is similar to lecturing. Lecturing is teaching by giving a discourse on a specific subject that is open to the public, usually given in the classroom. This can also be associated with modeling. Modeling is used as a visual aid to learning. Students can visualize an object or problem, then use reasoning and hypothesizing to determine an answer.

In your lecture you have the opportunity to tackle two types of learning. Not only can explaining (lecture) help the auditory learner through the speech of the teacher, but if the teacher is to include visuals in the form of overheads or slide shows, his/her lecture can have duality. Although a student might only profit substantially from one form of teaching, all students profit some from the different types of learning.

Demonstrating

Demonstrations are done to provide an opportunity to learn new exploration and visual learning tasks from a different perspective. A teacher may use experimentation to demonstrate ideas in a science class. A demonstration may be used in the circumstance of proving conclusively a fact, as by reasoning or showing evidence.

The uses of storytelling and examples have long since become standard practice in the realm of textual explanation. But while a more narrative style of information presentation is clearly a preferred practice in writing, judging by its prolificacy, this practice sometimes becomes one of the more ignored aspects of lecture. Lectures, especially in a collegiate environment, often become a setting more geared towards factorial presentation than a setting for narrative and/or connective learning. The use of examples and storytelling likely allows for better understanding but also greater individual ability to relate to the information presented. Learning a list of facts provides a detached and impersonal experience while the same list, containing examples and stories, becomes, potentially, personally relatable. Furthermore, storytelling in information presentation may also reinforce memory retention because it provides connections between factorial presentation and real-world examples/personable experience, thus, putting things into a clearer perspective and allowing for increased neural representation in the brain. Therefore, it is important to provide personable, supplementary, examples in all forms of information presentation because this practice likely allows for greater interest in the subject matter and better information-retention rates.

Often in lecture numbers or stats are used to explain a subject but often when many numbers are being used it is difficult to see the whole picture. Visuals that are bright in color, etc. offer a way for the students to put into perspective the numbers or stats that are being used. If the student can not only hear but see what is being taught, it is more likely they will believe and fully grasp what is being taught. It allows another way for the student to relate to the material.

Collaborating

Having students work in groups is another way a teacher can direct a lesson. Collaborating allows students to talk with each other and listen to all points of view in the discussion. It helps students think in a less personally biased way. When this lesson plan is carried out, the teacher may be trying to assess the lesson by looking at the student's: ability to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities. It is one of the direct instructional methods.

A different kind of group work is the discussion. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles as well as interesting topics, discussions may well take up most of the lesson, with the teacher only giving short feedback at the end or even in the following lesson. Discussions can take a variety of forms, e.g. fishbowl discussions.

Collaborating (kinesthetic) is great in that it allows to actively participate in the learning process. These students who learn best this way by being able to relate to the lesson in that they are physically taking part of it in some way. Group projects and discussions are a great way to welcome this type of learning.

Learning by teaching

Learning by teaching (German : LdL ) is a widespread method in Germany, developed by Jean-Pol Martin. The students take the teacher's role and teach their peers.

This method is very effective when done correctly. Having students teach sections of the class as a group or as individuals is a great way to get the students to really study out the topic and understand it so as to teach it to their peers. By having them participate in the teaching process it also builds self-confidence, self-efficacy, and strengthens students speaking and communication skills. Students will not only learn their given topic, but they will gain experience that could be very valuable for life.

An article discussing functional approaches to teaching English.

Methods and approaches such as Grammar Translation, Audiolingualism and Situational Language teaching are based on the presentation and practice of grammatical structures and, essentially, a grammar-based syllabus. In 1972, the British linguist D.A. Wilkins published a document that proposed a radical shift away from using the traditional concepts of grammar and vocabulary to describe language to an analysis of the communicative meanings that learners would need in order to express themselves and to understand effectively. This initial document was followed by his 1976 work Notional Syllabuses, which showed how language could be categorized on the basis of notions such as quantity, location and time, and functions such as making requests, making offers and apologizing.

Wilkins’ work was used by the Council of Europe in drawing up a communicative language syllabus, which specified the communicative functions a learner would need in order to communicate effectively at a given level of competence. At the end of the 1970s, the first course-books to be based on functional syllabuses began to appear. Typically, they would be organized on the basis of individual functions and the exponents needed to express these functions. For example, many course-books would begin with the function of ‘introducing oneself’, perhaps followed by the function of ‘making requests’, with typical exponents being ‘Can I ….?’, "Could you ….?’, "Is it alright if I ….?’ and so on. These would often be practised in the form of communicative exercises involving pair work, group work and role plays. It is interesting to compare this approach with a grammatical syllabus. In a typical grammatical syllabus, structures using the word ‘would’ tend to appear in later stages of the syllabus, as they are held to be relatively complex (e.g."If I knew the answer, I would tell you"), whereas in a functional syllabus ‘would’ often appears at a very early stage due to its communicative significance in exponents such as ‘Would you like ….?’, which is extremely common and of great communicative value even to beginners. The need to apply a grammatical name or category to the structure is not considered important within the framework of a purely functional syllabus.

Criticisms of functional approaches include the difficulty in deciding the order in which different functions should be presented. Is it more important to be able to complain or to apologize, for example? Another problem lies in the wide range of grammatical structures needed to manipulate basic functions at different levels of formality (for example, ‘Can I …..?’ as opposed to ‘Would you mind if I …..?"). In addition, although it is possible to identify hundreds of functions and micro-functions, there are probably no more than ten fundamental communicative functions that are expressed by a range of widely used exponents. There is also the apparently random nature of the language used, which may frustrate learners used to the more analytical and "building-block" approach that a grammatical syllabus can offer. Another apparent weakness is the question of what to do at higher levels. Is it simply a case of learning more complex exponents for basic functions or is one required to seek out ever more obscure functions (complaining sarcastically, for example)?

On the positive side, however, there is little doubt that functional approaches have contributed a great deal to the overall store of language teaching methodology. Most new course-books contain some kind of functional syllabus alongside a focus on grammar and vocabulary, thus providing learners with communicatively useful expressions in tandem with a structured syllabus with a clear sense of progression. In addition, the focus on communication inherent in the practice of functional exponents has contributed greatly to communicative language teaching in general. Finally, the idea that even beginners can be presented with exponents of high communicative value from the very start represents a radical shift from the kind of approach that began with the present simple of the verb ‘to be’ in all its forms and focused almost entirely on structure with little regard for actual communication in the target language.

TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) approaches have moved toward total comprehension teaching, which includes the listening approach, instead of focusing solely on grammatical teaching. In this approach, listening skills are addressed first, before teaching speaking, pronunciation or grammatical skills. Results have shown a better success rate in language communication when the listening approach is used by EFL teachers.

Function

In the listening approach, both audio aids like CDs and computer-aided audio, body language and visuals are first used, before any communicative response is required from the student. The aim of this approach is to first expose the listener to colloquial language and the natural intonation of native English speakers, and allow him to speak as he feels more comfortable in the language. Audio aids are usually recordings of native English speakers, who have different accents and who are from different English-speaking regions of the world. In lower levels the audio is designed with easy-to-comprehend language topics which gradually increase in difficulty as the course progresses. The teacher helps language learners to understand what is being said by using exaggerated body language and visual aids that coordinate with the audio. He does not translate every word into the first language. The objective is for the student to infer what the conversation is about, even if she does not understand every word.

Features

When toddlers are taught to speak, parents speak to them at a normal rate, but they also sing to children, play music and use toys to demonstrate functions. These visual and audio aids help the child learn to speak more quickly, but the child always feels like he is playing, and does not necessarily know that he is learning. In English as a second language, the same visuals are used. Teachers use picture flash cards, audio aids, movies, songs, language games--anything that will help get the communicative point across. Because of the use of these aids in learning English as a second language, the learning process becomes "fun," and so there is more of an interest on the students' part in learning the language.

Time Frame

Both teachers and language course developers have found that integrating, or using a total listening approach, allows students to acquire second language capability in a much shorter time frame, sometimes in as little as 1 or 2 years. However, this time frame grows longer when students are taught using more than one technique. For instance, a high school student may be taught using the listening approach in 12th grade, but then as she enters college and wishes to continue with language acquisition, the course she takes may focus only on grammar. At this point she has neither completed her course while using the listening approach nor solely focused on a grammatical approach. This causes confusion and requires a longer learning period.

Misconceptions

Some students and traditional TEFL advocates do not believe the TEFL listening approach works. They believe it is too simplistic and that students do not take the learning process seriously, because it is too much like play. In truth, if the listening approach is used throughout the entire language learning process, the ability to communicate comes much faster.

Benefits

Many language EFL schools and corporate training programs have integrated the listening approach into their teaching methods because it makes learning English more pleasant and interesting. As a general rule, when people find a subject interesting, they learn more quickly. Most adult learners are not as concerned about learning English grammar as they are with being able to communicate, especially if English acquisition is needed in their work environment. With the listening approach, most adults can communicate in English within 6 months to a year.

Authentic assessment, cooperative learning, inclusion – discover a vast range of current articles about teaching methodologies, ideal for all grades. Diversify your teaching strategies by implementing service-learning projects and integrating technology in your classroom. These resources will help you gain the experience and expertise you need to become a successful teacher, whether you're a new teacher or have been teaching for many years