Methodology for Language Teaching

 METHOLOGY FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

In language teaching, in particular in the general area of teaching methodology, people talk about approaches, methods, procedures, and techniques. We will have some a definition of each one of them to understand what they refer in language teaching.

Approaches
An approach is a theory about language learning or even a philosophy of how people learn in general. They can be psychologically focused such as behaviorism or cognitivism. They can also be based on older philosophies such as idealism or realism.
Approaches are fuzzy and hard to define because they are broad in nature. An example of an approach that leads to a method would be the philosophies of scholasticism, faculty of psychology, or  even perennialism. Each of these philosophies encouraged the development of the mind in the way of a muscle. Train the brain and a person would be able to do many different things. These philosophies have impacted some methods of language teaching as we will see below.

Method
A method is an application of an approach in the context of language teaching. An example of a method is the grammar-translation method. This method employs the memorization of various grammar rules and the translation of second language material to the students native language. Students were able to develop the intellectual capacity to understand the new language through a deductive process of acquiring the rules of the language.The purpose is not to critique this method but to show how it was derive from the approach that the mind needs to be trained through intellectual exercises to be able to accomplish something.

Technique

Technique is a procedure or skill for completing a specific task. I'd imagine this would be used for predictable events, ie. solving a long division equation.

Teaching Techniques: These are the little sneaky tricks we all know and use to get the job done in the classroom. Teachers all over have systems of rewards/punishments for students who comply and exceed or defy and lag behind. If a classroom is becoming distracted a teacher may use the technique of silent reading or shared reading to try to rope them in again. Another may choose to use a quick physical activity to distract their distraction and get them all to do the same thing at the same time - then quickly direct them back to work. This is really where someone with loads of experience can help another teacher improve her abilities. These are the tricks that can be taught to another teacher. Sort of "I find this really helps during math class" type of suggestions. Also a lot of the in-services and workshops all teachers attend offer little tidbits of games, activites, and actions that teachers can use to achieve certain goals in the classroom. Everything from sending a note home to mom and a trip to the principal's office to giving out 'points' for good behaviour are examples of techniques teachers can use to keep ahead of the pack.

Strategy

Strategy usually requires some sort of planning. You'd probably use strategy when faced with a new situation, ie. the strategy to win a game.

A plan of action designed to achieve an overall aim.

Strategy means a method. Such as when playing a football game, "That was a great strategy! It always works!" or when playing a video "Ok, our strategy is to go around the enemy".