Current TESL issues (Teaching English as a Second Language) in an interactive fashion enriched with distinctive keywords and tags and comment forms to discuss the issues
Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD in second language learning from a sociolinguistic point of view Zone of Proximal Development The Actual Developmental Level: According to Vygotsky (1978, p. 85), it is the level of development of the child’s mental functions that has been established as a result of certain already completed developmental cycles. The…
Learning-centered method in second language learning, which is one of the three dimensions of ‘language teaching methods’. Learning-centered method Learning-centered methods are those that are principally concerned with cognitive processes of language learning. These methods such as the Natural Approach seek to provide opportunities for learners to participate in open-ended meaningful interaction through problem-solving tasks in…
Cognitive development in children proposed by Piaget, a Swiss psychologists Cognitive Development Cognitive Development was proposed by Piaget (1896-1980), a Swiss psychologist. Jean Piaget offered an essentially rationalist perspective, documenting the insufficiency of an empiricist interpretation of experience (Piaget, 1980, p. 23). Sensory Motor Stage: Piaget’s theory is based on learners passing through a series…
Discourse analysis and pragmatics in second language acquisition Discourse Analysis and Pragmatics Discourse analysis serves as a device for systematically describing the kinds of interactions that occur in language classrooms. Drawing on initial work on content classrooms by Bellack (1966) and by the Birmingham School of linguistics (Sinclair & Coulthard (1975) discourse analysts give attention…
What is learner-centered method in second language learning and teaching Learner-centered Method Learner-centered method is principally concerned with learner needs, wants, and situations. These methods such as Communicative Language Teaching seek to provide opportunities for learners to practice preselected, presequenced linguistic structures and communicative notions/functions through meaning-focused activities, assuming that a preoccupation with form and…
Communicative Language Teaching in the realm of second language learning and teaching Important points about communicative language teaching Communicative Language Teaching was established in the late 1970s and early 1980s in opposition to ‘cognitive code’ proposed by Chomsky in his theory ‘Generative Grammar, 1960’. Authenticity of language learning: All of the activities are on the…
Behaviorism in second language learning Empirical studies were primarily descriptive and totally objective by nature. In the late 1960s and 1970s, a growing consensus was reached that behaviorist theories of L2 learning were inadequate. L2 learners, like L1 learners, were credited with a ‘built-in-syllabus’, which guided their progress. According to the behaviorist hypothesis, the mind of…
Audiolingualism in second language learning After Grammar Translation Method, audiolingualism emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s. This method is very popular even today, based on the foundation of drill-based techniques and exercises. Based on the theory of learning “behaviorism”, which viewed all learning as a process of forming habits. Language learning is basically a…