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
Traditional Instructional Theory Traditional instructional theory assumes that knowledge and skill can be analysed into component parts that function in the same way no matter where they are used. Psychological theories of the 1920s assumed that learning of complex competencies could be broken down into discrete skills learnt separately, through developing individual stimulus-response bonds (Gipps, …
Criterion-referenced Testing Criterion-referenced Testing Also known as ‘domain-referenced tests’. They are devised before the instruction itself is designed. The test must match teaching objectives perfectly, so that any tendency of the teacher to “teach to the test” would be permissible in that attaining objectives would thereby be assured. A criterion or ‘cut-off’ score is set …
Interlanguage Interlanguage Selinker coined this term to refer to the special mental grammars that learners construct during the course of their development. This theory credited learners with playing an active role in constructing mental grammars. Second language learners tend to go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they progress to full competence in …
Keywords in APA Style Keywords in APA Style You need to include several keywords in your manuscript, immediately after the abstract of your paper. Italicize and capitalize the word “Keywords” followed by a colon. Then after a space, start writing your keywords and separate them with commas. For instance: Keywords: computer-assisted language learning, interactivity, social …
Competition Model Competition Model is based on inductive approach to learning (empiricism). MacWhinney outlined a development of the Competition Model, which he called the Unified Model because it sought to provide an account of both L1 and L2 learning. According to this model, forms are stored in associative maps for syllables, lexical items, constructions, and …
Classroom Ethnography Classroom ethnography involves the kind of detailed descriptive work advocated by Johnson. They emphasise the importance of obtaining multiple perspectives through triangulation. Watson-Gegeo distinguished four approaches to classroom ethnography: Ethnography of communication Micro-ethnography Discourse analysis Critical ethnography The ethnography of communication has its origins in anthropology and, in particular, in the work of …
Bruner Bruner was an important advocate of Piaget’s ideas. Bruner was a professor of psychology and founder of the Centre for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University. To Bruner, the development of conceptual understanding and of cognitive skills and strategies is a central aim of education, rather than the acquisition of factual information. Bruner worked on …
Child Language Acquisition Child Language Acquisition Cromer concludes that experience stimulates language organisational processes and that these affect other linguistic structures that are internally related. The children appeared to be building their own grammars in their own way, without direct positive or negative evidence as to what was right or wrong. Children are creative, selective …
Skinner Skinner attempted to extend a classical behaviorist model of learning to language in his famous ‘Verbal Behavior’. His goal was to provide a way to predict and control verbal behavior by observing and manipulating the physical environment of the speaker. In his review of this work, Chomsky showed that the Skinnerian concepts for learning …
Language-centered Method Language-centered Method Language-centered methods are those that are principally concerned with linguistic forms. These methods such as ‘Audiolingual Method, seek to provide opportunities for learners to practice pre-selected, pre-sequenced linguistic structures through form-focused exercises in class, assuming that a preoccupation with form will ultimately lead to the mastery of the target language and …