Blog 4: Learning Opportunities and Informed Approaches

Blog Post 4
9/10/12
Kumar Chapter 3
Brown Chapter 3
Kumar Article


In Kumar's third chapter in Beyond Methods, he discusses the importance of maximizing learning opportunities.  As teachers, we begin to plan our lessons based off of the syllabus that either we have created or the syllabus that has been created for us, the textbooks that are given to us and the written lesson plan that we may have created.  According to Kumar, this does not equal a prime learning opportunity alone.

"We need to recognize the possibility that creation and utilization of learning opportunities are not bound by teachers' agenda, not bound by teaching materials, and not bound by syllabus specifications" (Kumar, 45).  He then goes on the describe how each can limit authentic and useful learning opportunities that may arise.

We learn in many ways, but an important way we learn is through the input around us.  If the classroom is teacher centered, there is obviously less diversity in the input that is generated.  However, if the lessons involve students who bring their own background knowledge and experiences to the environment, there is a more layered array of input that can be added.

An aspect that I find that I may need to work on when creating a rich learning environment for my students is the concept of teacher questioning.  "Yet another possibility for creating learning opportunities is for the teacher to ask the right type of questions that will trigger meaningful interaction.  In the field of general education, Hugh Mehan (1979) has identified four types of questions that normally occur in a classroom setting" (Kumar, 49).  The list consists of choice questions, product questions, process questions, and metaprocess questions.  While choice and product questions have their time and place of use, in a language classroom, especially an L2 language classroom, process and metaprocess questions are of the utmost importance because they facilitate interaction between students and the teachers.

In Brown's third chapter of his book Teaching By Principles, he discusses the concept of moving away from teaching methods and concentrating on teaching approaches instead.  "By the early 1990s it was readily apparent that we didn't need a new method.  We needed, instead, to get on with the tasks and techniques that were informed by approach" (Brown, 40).  He refers to this time as the "postmethod" era of language teaching. This involves Kumar's (2006b) concept of "pedagogy of particularity" which he means "sensitive to a particular group of teachers teaching a particular group of learners pursuing a particular set of goals within a particular institutional context embedded in a particular social milieu" (p. 538).

As with Kumar's chapter, Brown's chapter discusses the need for teachers to create lessons that are tailored to the particular class.  He states that we need a global understanding of the process of learning and teaching. Our practices should never be set in stone, however.  They need to change with the changed of our classes and students. We will inevitably gain more experience through our experiences which will in turn affect our future teachings, hopefully for the better.

Brown then goes on to explain Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) which "for some is an accepted paradigm with many interpretations and manifestations.  For others, CLT is laden with issues of 'authenticity, acceptability, and adaptability' and instead we are exhorted to embrace task-based language teaching as a more appropriate model" (Brown, 45).

Some characteristics of the CLT approach are the overall goals, relationship of form and function, fluency and accuracy, focus on real-world contexts, autonomy and strategic involvement, teacher roles, and student roles (Brown, 46).  CLT is learner centered and students are active participants.  Authentic learning is a big part of CLT and there is a less focus on the overt presentation and discussion of grammatical rules than traditional approaches.

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) is one of the most prominent perspectives within the CLT framework.  Some researchers such as Kumar believe that TBLT is a completely different approach while others believe that it is "at the very heart of CLT."  As stated by Brown, this approach puts the use of tasks at the core of language teaching.  Tasks are defined simply by "an activity which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective" (Brown, 50).

In Kumar's article, TESOL Methods: Changing Tracks, Challenging Trends, he, also, discusses the changes in pedagogical trends.  He describes the perceptible shifts as (a) from communicative language teaching to task-based language teaching, (b) from method-based pedagogy to postmethod pedagogy, and (c) from systemic discovery to critical discourse. He describes these changes not as replacements, but as works in progress.

As was stated in Brown's chapter about CLT, Kumar discusses that CLT is a broad approach of methods and curricula.  These methods and curricula "embrace both the goals and the processes of classroom learning, for teaching practice that views competence in terms of social interaction and looks to further language acquisition research to account for its development" (Kumar, 60).

CLT was actually a response to the "failure" of the audiolingual method that we read about in Brown's chapter.  CLT was thought to move classroom teaching away from largely structural orientation that relied on a "reified rendering of pattern practices and toward a largely communicative orientation that relied on a partial simulation of meaningful exchanged that take place outside the classroom" (Kumar, 61).  This could be done by role plays, drama and scenarios.  This seems to a great way of moving away from teacher centered classrooms and to a student/learner centered classroom.  When activities and discussions are based off authentic concepts that the learners can relate to, learning is best facilitated.  As we read in Kumar's book, certain teaching materials, written lesson plans, and syllabus can close the opportunity for learning opportunities and lead to a boring, unstimulated classroom.