Philippine College of Health and Sciences C. M.

Recto Avenue, Manila

Teaching English as a Second Language

Presented to: Prof. Vicente Lim

by: Rommel Maglaya Master of Arts in Education major in English

September 3, 2011

Introduction Language is the door to living and learning (Pakhivala, 2007). It becomes essential to every human being of any age, race and color. She added, for humans, nothing quite beats language for effective, precise communication. It is by language that people communicate with others expressively. Language is used as the medium of communication. When one person talks, another listens hence, information is transmitted. Communication could be transmitted in many ways, but for typically developed children, oral language is the source of communication. According to Hammerly (1985), language teaching should not be regarded as an intellectual exercise that involves the comprehension and memorization of rule statements, the reading of literature, the memorization of sentences, is a matter of mechanical conditioning. He stresses that second language teaching/learning involves several of the things enumerated above and many others. It is not any one exclusively. The time has come, he points out, to accept that. For best results, language teaching should not be based on partial theories but on comprehensive theories. Wood (1981) stated that language teachers must be concerned with developing communicative competence has been referred to as ones ability to use and interpret language appropriately in the process of interaction and in relation to social context (Hymes, 1972; and Stern, 1983). A corollary investigation provides result on how language is produced, perceived, comprehended and remembered, how it is used and acquired. Also in some concern, Bachman & Palmer (1996) in Vienna (2002) attest that effective language use requires both organizational knowledge (what is said) and pragmatic knowledge (how it is said). The multi-faceted skills required for the effective use of language as above made descriptions merely boils down to the term coined communicative competence.

Rationale The importance of language in the establishment of national identity cannot be underestimated. Throughout history, the standardization of national languages has led to greater national unity, while one of the main aims during the colonial period was to impose the colonisers language on the subjugated people to weaken their sense of cultural and national selfhood. In the Philippines, the Basic Features of the Restructured Basic Education Curriculum of the Department of Education (2002) mandated that language teaching must focus on the communicative competence among the learners. Learners are more likely to achieve the desired level of competence if they are motivated to learn and use the language. Speaking English for Filipino students is a task met with enthusiasm and fear, for that reason, language teachers find it difficult to encourage students to participate in classroom activities during English class.

For this reason, this paper will cite some classical and modern methods in teaching English as a Second Language.

Abstraction There are many methods of teaching languages. Some have had their heyday and have fallen into relative obscurity; others are widely used now; still others have a small following, but contribute insights that may be absorbed into the generally accepted mix.
The grammar translation method The grammar translation method instructs students in grammar, and provides vocabulary with direct translations to memorize. It was the predominant method in Europe in the 19th century. Most instructors now acknowledge that this method is ineffective by itself. It is now most commonly used in the traditional instruction of the classical languages. At school, the teaching of grammar consists of a process of training in the rules of a language which must make it possible to all the students to correctly express their opinion, to understand the remarks which are addressed to them and to analyze the texts which they read. The objective is that by the time they leave college, the pupil controls the tools of the language which are the vocabulary, grammar and the orthography, to be able to read, understand and write texts in various contexts. The teaching of grammar examines the texts, and develops awareness that language constitutes a system which can be analyzed. This knowledge is acquired gradually, by traversing the facts of language and the syntactic mechanisms, going from simplest to the most complex. The exercises according to the program of the course must untiringly be practised to allow the assimilation of the rules stated in the course. That supposes that the teacher corrects the exercises. The pupil can follow his progress in practicing the language by comparing his results. Thus can he adapt the grammatical rules and control little by little the internal logic of the syntactic system. The grammatical analysis of sentences constitutes the objective of the teaching of grammar at the school. Its practice makes it possible to recognize a text as a coherent whole and conditions the training of a foreign language. Grammatical terminology serves this objective. Grammar makes it possible for each one to understand how the mother tongue functions, in order to give him the capacity to communicate its thought. The direct method The direct method, sometimes also called natural method, is a method that refrains from using the learners' native language and just uses the target language. It was established in Germany and France around 1900. The direct method operates on the idea that second language learning must be

an imitation of first language learning, as this is the natural way humans learn any language - a child never relies on another language to learn its first language, and thus the mother tongue is not necessary to learn a foreign language. This method places great stress on correct pronunciation and the target language from outset. It advocates teaching of oral skills at the expense of every traditional aim of language teaching. According to this method, printed language and text must be kept away from second language learner for as long as possible, just as a first language learner does not use printed word until he has good grasp of speech. Learning of writing and spelling should be delayed until after the printed word has been introduced, and grammar and translation should also be avoided because this would involve the application of the learner's first language. All above items must be avoided because they hinder the acquisition of a good oral proficiency. The audio-lingual method The audio-lingual method has students listen to or view recordings of language models acting in situations. Students practice with a variety of drills, and the instructor emphasizes the use of the target language at all times. The audio-lingual method was used by the United States Army for "crash" instruction in foreign languages during World War II. Due to weaknesses in performance, audiolingual methods are rarely the primary method of instruction today. Communicative language teaching Communicative language teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language. Despite a number of criticisms, it continues to be popular, particularly in Europe, where constructivist views on language learning and education in general dominate academic discourse. In recent years, Task-based language learning (TBLL), also known as task-based language teaching (TBLT) or task-based instruction (TBI), has grown steadily in popularity. TBLL is a further refinement of the CLT approach, emphasizing the successful completion of tasks as both the organizing feature and the basis for assessment of language instruction. Language immersion Language immersion puts students in a situation where they must use a foreign language, whether or not they know it. This creates fluency, but not accuracy of usage. French-language immersion programs are common in Canada in the state school system as part of the drive towards bilingualism.

Drama in Language teaching Davies (1990) believes that drama strengthens the bond between thought and expression in language, provides practice of supra-segmentals and para-language, and offers good listening practice. If drama is considered as a teaching method in the sense of being part of the eclectic approach to language teaching, then it can become a main aid in the acquisition of communicative competence. Drama-based activities facilitate the type of language behavior that should lead to fluency, and if it is accepted that the learners want to learn a language in order to make themselves understood in the target language,then drama does indeed further this end. He also believes that drama in the English language classroom is ultimately indispensable because it gives learners the chance to use their own personalities. It draws upon students' natural abilities to imitate and express themselves, and if well-handled should arouse interest and imagination. Drama encourages adaptability, fluency, and communicative competence. It puts language into context, and by giving learners experience of success in real-life situations it should arm them with confidence for tackling the world outside the classroom. Snow, (1999) stated that when a child participates in a creative drama with other children he is can use language to control his surroundings, describe the things that he experiences with his senses, and organize his thoughts. The development of language also allows a child to describe the string of events in a story and re-enact that story. When a child casting a show with marionettes puppets, he is recognizing that there is a connection between words that are written and words that are spoken. Minimalist/methodist Paul Rowe's minimalist/methodist approach. This new approach is underpinned with Paul Nation's three actions of successful ESL teachers.[citation needed] Initially it was written specifically for unqualified, inexperienced people teaching in EFL situations. However, experienced language teachers are also responding positively to its simplicity. Language items are usually provided using flashcards. There is a focus on language-in-context and multi-functional practices. Directed practice Directed practice has students repeat phrases. This method is used by U.S. diplomatic courses. It can quickly provide a phrasebook-type knowledge of the language. Within these limits, the student's usage is accurate and precise. However the student's choice of what to say is not flexible.

Learning strategies

Code switching Code switching, that is, changing between languages at some point in a sentence or utterance, is a commonly used communication strategy among language learners and bilinguals. While traditional methods of formal instruction often discourage code switching, students, especially those placed in a language immersion situation, often use it. If viewed as a learning strategy, wherein the student uses the target language as much as possible but reverts to their native language for any element of an utterance that they are unable to produce in the target language, then it has the advantages that it encourages fluency development and motivation and a sense of accomplishment by enabling the student to discuss topics of interest to him or her early in the learning process -- before requisite vocabulary has been memorized. It is particularly effective for students whose native language is English, due to the high probability of a simple English word or short phrase being understood by the conversational partner. Blended learning Blended learning combines face-to-face teaching with distance education, frequently electronic, either computer-based or web-based. It has been a major growth point in the ELT (English Language Teaching) industry over the last ten years. Some people, though, use the phrase 'Blended Learning' to refer to learning taking place while the focus is on other activities. For example, playing a card game that requires calling for cards may allow blended learning of numbers (1 to 10). Private tutoring Tutoring by a native speaker can be one of the most effective ways of learning. However, it requires a skilled, motivated native tutor, which can be a rare, expensive commodity. That tutor may draw on one or several of the above methods. New online offerings allow for language tutoring over the internet.

Having done all these, the teacher will be in a position to select the most useful techniques or principles and to design a productive course of study drawing from available approaches, syllabus types, and existing research findings.