an elt approach: ed’s

intro

If I were asked where my approach to second language teaching is heading, what would I say?

a possible answer

to make things easier I will use the following lines from david kern’s book “literacy and language teaching”

• “even the most basic acts of communication require interpretation, involving the use of resources that extend well beyond the grammar and vocabulary of a language”
• “the design metaphor emphasizes the construction of meaning and not a simple transfer of it in every communicative act”
• “from the metaphorical perspective of design, communication occurs at the intersection between language and context and relies on the perception of linguistic, cognitive and social relationships”.

.

keywords are: communication, design and the third line. put together, they build the framework reference i have for my teaching principles and approach:

one
communication is everything. a sense of it is constantly in the air. exactly, it is like air without which there is language learning. so, intentions drive all efforts to get things done or express feelings, and ways are found to let others know of them. that is communication, and that should be clear to learners.
two
design is none of other than construction of meaning. language learning is a process more than a product. it is dynamic. it changes in every instance. it is a mind game. it is fun. that is how sessions can be described: continuous designs.
three
from the perspective of methodology explained, language learning takes humans to understand that is language is not a code alone. language uses context to exist. in other words, there is no language without context. who, where, when, by whom, to whom, etc.. everything expressed must answer all these questions. and only humans can understand such a complex code, which they process in their minds and use as well as improve it through social actions.