Approaches to ESL/EFL (From 2/3/14)

I have discovered that there are numerous acronyms that I would like to share after having encountered the approaches to ESL and EFL instruction. Of course, there will be more to come ...

ESL -  English as a second language is taught in the US, the UK, India, or countries where English is the primary language of commerce or education.

EFL - English as a foreign language is taught in places like Taiwan, or Brazil, where English is NOT the major language.

Brown mentions several language learning and teaching principles in Teaching by Principles, An Integrative Approach to Language Pedagogy. The cognitive principles refer to mental and intellectual functions which include a subconscious fluency (automaticity), relevant associations (meaningful learning), and successful mastery of a foreign language (autonomy).  I am very fond of "intrinsic motivation," which is encouraged, sometimes, by the anticipation of rewards, which for most speakers would be the ability to speak a language without asking what words mean or having to carry a dictionary around.  I am personally grateful for the invaluable site I was introduced to last year - wordreference.com. There are at least 15 different language dictionaries, resources and forums available.  Would you believe that is even an app for that? And yes (because I know you are wondering if I have it); I don't leave home without it.

The socioaffective principles are based on a learner's feelings about him/herself, communicating with others in a community of learners, and the ties between language and one's culture, worldview, and way of life. (Brown, 2007). Linguistic principles then, would deal directly with language itself: the learner's native language, interlanguage (the quasi- systematic developmental process in progression to competence in the target language (TL)), and communicative competence. All working together to help educators formulate methodological options in their language classroom pedagogy.

Within chapters 1 and 4, Brown presents a typical English lesson and encourages readers (future or current language educators) to develop a broadly based theoretical approach that incorporates basic principles of learning and teaching language. We will explore chapters 13 and 14 next.

Work Cited

Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language 
             pedagogy (3^rd edition). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Wordreference.com. (2014). Internet Bilingual Dictionaries and tools. Retrieved from
            http://www.wordreference.com


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