Being born at the very end of 1970's in a rural area of China, I feel lucky as well as unexpected to have access to higher education and then be an English teacher myself.
Traditional English"grammar-translation" method prevailed in China in 1990's (and still now as well), especially in rural areas, with few resources concerning real English communication. The process was usually: vocabulary-sentences-text-grammar-exercises, which sounds pretty boring. But believe it or not, via the traditional way, I got a systematic picture of English grammar rules and I can apply them to using.
Lightbown, P.,& Spada, N.(1999) state that "most of us teach as we were taught or in a way that reflects our ideas and preference about learning". Looking back on my own learning and teaching experiences, I suppose it is the case, to some extent at least. After being exposed to the lexical approach, I start to retrospect what I did to my students. I may be constrained too much by coursebooks and national standard syllabus.
However, according to Lewis, M.,(2002), "one can change syllabus without changing method, or change method without changing syllabus". Meanwhile, I still think that traditional grammar-based method has its own advantage in teaching in a systematic way. Therefore, effectively combining the two may be a right orientation.
References:
Lewis, M. (2002) The Lexical Approach: the State of ELT and a WAY Forward, Australia. : Thomson Heinle
Lightbown, P.,& Spada, N.(1999) How Languages are learned, Oxford : Oxford University Press
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Interesting Chanjuan - I think there is definitely a place for a traditional grammar-based approach as well - but in the past this has been far too dominant in the ELT classroom. Today I looked at an older textbook with a focus on conversation - and it was orgnised around the different verb tenses, etc. which seems a bit odd. Surely the focus should be on contexts & genres of conversation etc. and from there look at what useful lexico grammatical features seem to occur.
ReplyDeleteChanjuan... I had been thinking about the impact adopting a "lexical approach" in the course I teach might have on the prescribed syllabus I'm obliged to follow when I went back to look at something I recalled from your posting. It was Lewis's quote: "one can change syllabus without changing method, or change method without changing syllabus" (Lewis, 2002, p???). That's a relief! So, I reckon I'm on safe ground in gradually incorporating aspects of a "lexical approach" then in the course. I can continue with the overall syllabus, but, as I do, I can also be 'thinking on my feet', looking for lexically-based opportunities in the very same content/materials I've been using and continue focusing on the same course objectives. I'e simply acquired some new tools which can make realising my teaching objectives (whether they're focused on lexus, grammar, semantics, whatever) potentially more achievable. I don't have to "throw out the baby with the bathwater" as the old, idiomatic, lexical chunck goes, in order begin applying the LA in my course.
ReplyDeleteTa, Mike
Lewis, M. (2002) The Lexical Approach: the State of ELT and a WAY Forward, Australia. : Thomson Heinle
Lewis, M. (2002) The Lexical Approach: The state of ELT and a way forward, Australia. : Thomson Heinle
Yes, Mike. That what I am trying to work out. We can not change the syllabus but we can change our methods. These days I opened some of the teaching plans on my computer I used to teach. And I did come out some key points to make it better in delivering the lecture. For example, in teaching the vocabulary part, I used to focus mainly on its pronunciation and spelling because we will encounter those words again in text. But after learning the lexical approach,esp. corpus, I got the idea that paying more attention to chunks and collocations will be more beneficial.
ReplyDeleteAnd surely, this is not necessarily contradictory with syllabus.
Chanjuan, I have recently started including ' Chunking in the lessons that I teach. The change in the learner is remarkable. The look on their faces is quite, for want of a better word, remarkable. It is almost like ' the lights have turned on'.
ReplyDelete