Summary of our Discussion this week

We had a discussion on the class site this week about which language teaching approaches are our preferred and least preferred. There were some good points made in defense of some of the approaches I would have originally given little thought to. The Audiolingual approach is my least favorite method we read about, yet through discussion I realized there are some good points for it and I realized I actually use it in my teaching methods. The point was made that drills and repetition are an effective way to keep something to memory. I have experienced some of the same results as my classmate Jennifer who said about her experience in teaching,"(Learning language through songs) helped the students learn certain vocabulary and structures deeply by practicing them in a different, fun way." And as my classmate Vanessa said "Forming good habits through repetition does have value." So the Audiolingual approach can be effective, but I think it can only be  effective in teaching language if it is used in conjunction with other approaches that help the learner use the structure and good pronunciation in real world use. As for other less preferred approaches, the Grammar Translation approach came up a number of times, mostly due to it's lack of connection to real world use but some language students learn best through this approach, to this my classmate Lauren said " I think it’s very important to take this(the fact that students want it) into consideration, especially in an educational culture that is more and more student-driven." So there is even a place for the Grammar Translation Approach. By far the favorite approach rang in as the Communicative approach, and as for me that sounds good too because personally my two preferred methods are the communicative and Direct approach. I like the Direct Method because it uses pictures, miming, demonstrating, drawing and objects to show the students what is being taught. I also like this method because it encourages the  students to ask questions and speak as much as possible. I like the communicative teaching approach because it focuses on real life situations and authentic materials and all the skills are integrated right from the beginning. Others on in the discussion said they liked the approach for it's goal to communicate, learner centered nature, teachers role is as guide, use of current materials and students learn grammar inductively.
  What I have found interesting as I have been learning about approaches, is that in my ESL class I use more Audiolingual style than I would have expected, considering I don't like the approach that much. I am not quite sure why this is yet. Either way it seems I need to line up my intentions and my actions, to teach more intentionally. I have enjoyed this learning journey. A line from the article I read by Paul Davis and Eric Pearse 'Development in Teaching English' really stood out to me, it reads " Many teachers continue to use activities and techniques that have passed out of fashion. Sometimes this is the result of ignorance rather than professional judgement. But other teacher who are trained and well-informed, also take ideas from unfashionable methods because they seem appropriate for their own teaching-learning situation. This is known as eclecticism. Eclectic approaches, based on well-informed views of the nature of language, language learning and language teaching and a good analysis of the specific teaching-learning situation, are considered by many English teaching professionals to be the best." It stood out to me for two reasons. One: I often feel like the ignorant teacher who has this willy nilly teaching approach that is working but I don't know why. Two: I see my goal here; to have an eclectic approach, based on well-informed views of the nature of language, language learning and language teaching and a good analysis of the specific teaching-learning situation. That's why I am in this class.