Exploring English Language Teaching

Language in Action

Graham Hall

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781138722781
• eBook ISBN: 9781351757911
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, primarily designed for those entering postgraduate studies and language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative 'practice to theory' approach, with a 'back-to-front' structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms, and an annotated further reading section.

Exploring English Language Teaching provides a single volume introduction to the field of ELT from an applied linguistics perspective. The book addresses four central themes within English language teaching: 'Classroom interaction and management'; 'Method, Postmethod and methodology'; 'Learners'; and the 'Institutional frameworks and social contexts' of ELT. For each, the book identifies key dilemmas and practices, examines how teachers and other language teaching professionals might intervene and deal with these concerns, and explores how such issues link to and inform applied linguistic theory.

This second edition has been extensively revised and updated to explore the latest practical developments and theoretical insights in the field of ELT. With new material, including expanded discussions of CLIL, the role of new technologies in ELT, and the teaching of large classes in difficult circumstances, and with an updated glossary and suggestions for additional reading, this is an indispensable textbook for language teachers and students studying in the areas of Applied Linguistics, Language Teacher Education, and ELT/TESOL.

Part I
Classroom interaction and management

1
The language classroom

Roles, relationships and interactions

the classroom is the true centre of the educational experience, and … it is here, through the teaching-and-learning process, that education ‘happens’.

(Wright, 2005: 1)

This chapter will:

• consider the social as well as pedagogic character of English language teaching classrooms;
• explore how teachers assume a variety of roles in class, and investigate how these roles may affect language learning and ‘classroom life’;
• investigate how patterns of classroom interaction, including teacher and learner talk, error and corrective feedback and teachers’ questions, may affect opportunities for language learning;
• encourage readers to reflect on their own beliefs and classroom practices, while acknowledging possible alternatives.

Introduction: thinking about the ‘ELT classroom’

English language classrooms are complicated places. Common sense tells us that classrooms are places where ‘people, typically one teacher and a number of learners, come together for a pedagogical purpose’ (Allwright, 1992: 267). However, in addition to their physical (or virtual) location and pedagogic function, classrooms are also social environments, that is, language lessons can be understood as social events based upon social relationships and social interaction (Erikson, 1986; Breen, 2001a; Tudor, 2001), where ‘events interweave, as participants experience them’ (Wright, 2012: 61). The beliefs and expectations of parents, institutional managers and governmental agencies beyond the classroom and the relationships between the participants in the classroom (i.e., teachers and learners) affect classroom practices and behaviour. Thus:

The classroom is not a world unto itself. The participants … arrive at the event with certain ideas as to what is a ‘proper’ lesson, and in their actions and interaction they will strive to implement these ideas. In addition the society at large and the institution the classroom is part of have certain expectations and demands which exert influence on the way the classrooms turn out.

(van Lier, 1988a: 179)

Clearly, therefore, diversity and complexity are fundamental elements of language teaching and learning, and of language classrooms (Tudor, 2001; Williams et al., 2015). Given the number of participants who in some way affect what happens in a language classroom, and the varied local contexts in which English language teaching (ELT) takes place, each classroom is unique; and it is this human and contextual complexity (Tudor, 2001) that makes classroom language teaching ‘messy’ (Freeman, 1996). What goes on in a classroom is inevitably much more than the logical and tidy application of theories and principle; it is localized, situation-specific, and, therefore, diverse. Indeed, using the metaphor of ‘coral gardens’ to convey their socially complex and diverse nature, Breen (2001a) has suggested that individual language classrooms develop their own specific character and culture. (As we shall see in Chapter 3, where we shall examine the image of ‘coral gardens’ in more detail, metaphor has proved a particularly useful way in which teachers and applied linguists have characterized and explained language classrooms and language teaching.) Recognizing the complex and diverse nature of ELT class rooms around the world, and the social as well as pedagogical aspects of classroom life, is the starting point of our exploration of roles, relationships and interactions in second language (L2) classrooms. How might teachers organize and manage their classrooms and learners, and what practical dilemmas do they face when doing so?

Before we proceed: teacher beliefs and classroom practice

Much has been written about the links between teachers’ beliefs (also sometimes labelled ‘personal theories’) and their classroom behaviour (e.g., Crookes, 2003; S. Borg, 2006). M. Borg (2001: 186) summarizes a belief as:

A proposition which may be consciously or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is accepted as true by the individual … [and] serves as a guide to thought and behaviour.

Although terms such as ‘rules of thumb’ or ‘teacher lore’ (Crookes, 2003) may appear to downplay their importance, as Crookes remarks (47), ‘it is impossible to act, as a teacher, without having theories (including values) that inform teaching actions, at least to some degree’.

Equally notable is that teachers’ beliefs are derived from and influenced by a range of sources including the perspectives of others (e.g., colleagues, teacher-trainers and educators, and academic research and researchers) and their own practical experience of what is and is not successful. This suggests that a two-way relationship exists between beliefs and practice, with beliefs informing (but not determining) practice and, vice versa, practice informing what an individual may believe.

However, even establishing what teachers (indeed, anyone) actually believe is extremely challenging, involving, as it does, issues of consciousness (e.g., have I ever consciously thought about a topic before? do I really know what I think about it?), the ways in which peoples’ ideas change over time, how articulate a person is at expressing their beliefs, and social pressures and expectations on speakers that cause them to modify what they may reveal. Several researchers have also found mismatches between what teachers say they believe and what their classroom practices actually seem to demonstrate (e.g., Phipps and S. Borg, 2009). The potential role contextual and institutional factors might have in affecting and constraining teachers’ behaviour should also be acknowledged (as we shall see in later chapters).

That said, at some level, teachers’ classroom practices are informed by their personal theories in areas as broad as ‘what is teaching?’ and ‘what role should the teacher and learners take in the classroom?’, through to the more specific ‘how should learners be organized and seated in classroom activities?’ and ‘how should language be elicited … and corrected?’. Sometimes, this is through deliberate and explicit thought and reflection; sometimes, however, it is through implicit, taken-for-granted assumptions, or beliefs that were previously learned or instilled on teacher training programmes and which are now realized through routine (and routinized) teaching practices.

Thus, teachers should not be viewed as ‘skilled technicians who dutifully realize a given set of teaching procedures in accordance with the directives of a more or less distant authority’ (Tudor, 2001: 17). Instead:

Teachers are active participants in the creation of classroom realities, and they act in the light of their own beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of the relevant teaching situation … we need to be aware of ‘the unique contribution which each individual brings to the learning situation’ (Williams and Burden, 1997: 95).

(Tudor, 2001: 17–18)

Task 1.1 Thinking through ‘beliefs’

• What are your beliefs about the ideas that ‘errors in the language classroom should be corrected as soon as they are made’ and ‘getting learners to work in pairs or groups is the most effective way of promoting learning in the ELT classroom’?
• What other beliefs do you have about how English is taught? For example:
  • What is/are the most appropriate role(s) for the teacher and learners in the L2 classroom?
  • How much should teachers and learners talk in class?
  • Should the learners’ first language (ever) be used in class? If so, when and by whom, how and how much? If not, why not?
  • What is the most effective way of arranging the desks and seats in an L2 classroom?
• Have your ideas and beliefs about how to teach English changed over time? How? Why?
• Can you think of an example where what you do in class seems clearly related to what you think you believe about how to teach English?
• Can you think of another example, this time where what you do in class seems to contradict what you think you believe about English language teaching? Why do you think this is?

Thinking about classrooms: exploring teacher roles

We can see, therefore, that how teachers manage classrooms, and the roles that they and learners enact in class, will vary according to their beliefs and their teaching context. However, although teachers (and learners) may be more comfortable with one particular way of organizing teaching and learning compared to another (e.g., ‘teaching from the front’ compared to group-based discovery activities), they are likely, of course, to take on more than one role in the classroom, switching between them as required. Additionally, how teaching is conceptualized – as the transmission of knowledge from teachers to learners, or as the provision of opportunities for learners to discover and construct knowledge for themselves – will also affect the role teachers assume in the classroom. We shall discuss differing approaches to teaching in more detail in the next chapter, examining broader philosophies of education in Chapter 12; now, however, we shall turn to examine the practical implications of ‘role’ in the L2 classroom.

First thoughts: teachers and students … teachers and learners

Observing that role can be defined in a variety of ways, Wright (1987: 7) suggests that it is ‘a complex grouping of factors which combine to produce certain types of social behaviour’, while Widdowson (1987) emphasizes the importance of social expectations and norms in prescribing (or constraining) the personas and behaviour (i.e., the role) of teachers and learners. Widdowson characterizes the classroom as a ‘social space’, and both he and Wright recognize that teachers need to balance both social and pedagogic purposes within their classroom behaviour (as we have seen).

Thus, Wright highlights the job or task-related (i.e., pedagogic) elements and the interpersonal (i.e., social) elements of the teacher’s role. Likewise, Widdowson suggests that teachers are obliged to function as representatives of institutions and society, leading to clear, fixed and hierarchical relationships in the classroom between teachers and students; but teachers also engage in more pedagogically oriented relationships with learners.

By using different terms for the same group of classroom participants, Widdowson highlights the dual nature of the teacher’s role and teacher-student/learner relationships. Teache...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of tables and figures
• Acknowledgements
• Permissions
• Series editors’ introduction
• PART I Classroom interaction and management
• PART II Method, Postmethod and methodology
• PART III Learners
• PART IV Institutional frameworks and social contexts
• Commentary on selected tasks
• Glossary
• Further reading
• References
• Index