M’sila University Module :Didactics

Academic Year:2020/2021 Level : Third Year

What is Didactics?
In simple terms, didactics is synonymous with teaching and instruction. It is a discipline that
is essentially concerned with the science of teaching and instruction for any given field of
study. Didactics is based on multiple theories of teaching, and in a wider sense, theory
and the practical application of teaching and learning methods.

1. FORMER METHODS IN TEACHING ENGLISH

The purpose of this chapter is to provide information to the teacher trainees

about the methods of foreign language teaching. By reading this chapter, you will
gain an understanding of the principles on which these methods and approaches are
based and of the techniques associated with each. The methods described here were
chosen because some segments of them are currently practised today. We do not
aim to convince you of the superiority of any of them. We would like to arouse
your interest in the existing ways and methods and we want to encourage you to
investigate each so that you can find the most efficient ones.

1.1. The Grammar Translation Method

The Grammar Translation Method has had different names but it has been used
by language teachers for a long time. It was called Classical Method as it was first
used in the teaching of the classical languages, Latin and Greek. Its aim was to help
students read foreign language literature and it was also hoped that through
studying the grammar of the target language students would become familiar with
the grammar of their native language and that of the target language. In the 19th
century the Classical Method was known as the Grammar Translation Method.
According to the Grammar Translation Method the fundamental purpose of
learning a foreign language is:

- to be able to read literature written in the target language;

- to provide students with good mental exercise which helps develop their
minds;
- to give the learners grammatical rules and examples to memorize them;
- to make them apply the rules to other examples;
- to teach the students to write in both their native and the target languages
through translation. (Bárdos 2005: 46)
The method itself belongs to the cognitive way of language teaching.
The basic principles of the method:
- characteristic interaction in the teaching process is a Student – Teacher
interaction;
- teacher’s roles are very traditional, the teacher is the authority in the
classroom;
- literary language is considered superior to spoken language, culture is
considered as consisting of literature and the fine arts, behaviour culture
is ignored;
- passive vocabulary and grammar are emphasized at cost of
pronunciation
- reading and writing are the primary skills much less attention is given to
speaking and listening;
- the language that is used in class is mostly the students native language,
the meanings of new words are made clear by translating them into the
students native language;
- evaluation is accomplished on the basis of written tests in which students
are expected to translate from their native language to the target one or vice

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versa, questions about the foreign culture have to be answered as well;
- culture is viewed as consisting of literature and the fine arts;
- error correction is very important, the teacher always supplies the students
with the correct answer
- the syllabus is structure-based .
Activities characteristic of the method:
- translation of a literary passage
- reading comprehension
- finding antonyms and synonyms
- gap-filling exercises
- memorization
- using words in sentences
- compositions. (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 4-15)

1.2. The Direct Method

Since the Grammar Translation Method was not very effective in preparing
students to use the target language communicatively, the Direct Method became
popular. In the Direct Method no translation is allowed. The Direct Method
receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be connected directly with the
target language without going through the process of translating into he students’
native language. The method itself belongs to the natural approach of language
teaching.

The goal of language learning is communication. In order to achieve this goal,

students should learn to think in the target language.

The principles of the method:

- the initiation of the interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students
and from students to teacher although the latter is often teacher-directed, at the
same time student-student interaction is used as well;
- the native language should not be used in the classroom;
- the teacher should demonstrate not explain or translate;
- the teacher and the students are more like partners in the teaching/learning
process;
- it is desirable that students make a direct association between the target
language and meaning;
- students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible;
- vocabulary is acquired more naturally if students use it in full sentences
rather than memorising word lists;
- pronunciation should be worked on right from the beginning of language
instruction;
- lessons should contain some conversation activity – some opportunity for
students to use language in real contexts;
- students should be encouraged to speak as much as possible;
- grammar should be taught inductively;
- there may never be an explicit grammar rule given;
- the syllabus is based on situations or topics not on linguistic structures;
- learning a language involves learning the behaviour culture of the people
living in the target country;
- culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language
and the geography of the country or countries where the language is spoken and
information about the daily lives of the speakers in the target language are
studied;

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- vocabulary is emphasized over grammar;
- work on all four skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) occurs from
the start, oral communication is seen as basic;
- there is no formal evaluation in the class, students have to use the language
using both oral and written skills;
- the teacher tries to get students to self-correct whenever possible.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- reading aloud
- conversation practice
- gap filling exercise
- dictation
- map drawing (The students are given a map with the geographical features
unnamed. Then the teacher gives the students directions. (Following the teacher’s
instructions the students have to label the map of a country.)
- paragraph writing. (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 18-28)

1.3. The Audio-Lingual Method

The Audio-Lingual Method, which belongs to the cognitive approach of

language teaching, was developed in the United States during WW II. There was a
great demand for people speaking foreign languages for military purposes. They
had to be prepared for their tasks in shortcut intensive courses. Some of the
principles used in this method are similar to those of the direct method but many
are different, based upon the conceptions of the Grammar Translation Method.
The goal of Audio-Lingual Method is to enable students to use the target
language communicatively. In order to do this, students need to over-learn the
target language, to learn to use it automatically without stopping to think. This aim
can be achieved by students’ forming new habits in the target language and
overcoming the old habits of their native language.

The principles of the method are:

- the teacher is like an orchestra leader, directing and controlling the
language behaviour of her/his students; she provides her students with a good
model for imitation;
- the target language is used in the classroom not the students’ native
language;
- a contrastive analyses between the students’ native language and the target
language will reveal where a teacher should expect the most interference;
- there is student-student interaction in chain drills or when students take
different roles in dialogues, but this interaction is teacher-directed because most
of the interaction is between teacher-student and is initiated by the teacher;
- new vocabulary and structures are presented through dialogues, the
dialogues are learnt through imitation and repetition, grammar is induced
from the examples given: explicit grammar rules are not provided;
- cultural information is contextualized in the dialogues or presented by the
teacher;
- the oral/aural skills receive most of the attention, pronunciation is taught
from the beginning, often by students working in language laboratories;
- students are evaluated on the bases of distinguishing between words in a
minimal pair or by supplying an appropriate word form in a sentence;
- student errors are to be avoided through the teacher’s awareness of where
the students will have difficulty;
- the syllabus is structure-based.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- dialogue memorization

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- expansion-drill (This drill is used when a long dialogue is giving students
trouble. The teacher brakes down the line into several parts. Following the
teacher’s cue, the students expand what they are repeating part by part until they
are able to repeat the entire line. The teacher begins with the part at the end of the
sentence and works backward from there to keep the intonation of the line as
natural as possible. This directs more student attention to the end of the sentence,
where new information typically occurs.)
- repetition drill
- chain drill (The teacher begins the chain of conversation by greeting a
student or asking him a question. That student responds, then turns to the student
sitting next to him and the chain will be continued. The chain drill allows some
controlled communication, even though it is limited.)
- single-slot substitution drill (The teacher says a line, usually from the
dialogue. Next, the teacher says a word or a phrase- called a cue. The students
repeat the line the teacher has given them substituting the cue into the line in its
proper place. The major purpose of this drill is to give the students practice in
finding and filling in the slots of a sentence.)
- multiple-slot substitution drill (The teacher gives cue phrases, one at a time
that fit into different slots in the dialogue line. The students have to recognise what
part of speech each cue is where it fits into the sentence and make other changes
such as subject-verb agreement.)
- transformation drill (Students are asked fro example to transform an
affirmative sentence into a negative one.)
- question and answer drill
- use of minimal pairs (The teacher works with pairs of words which differ in
only one sound eg. ship – sheep.)
- gap-filling
- grammar game. (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 31-50)

1.4. The Silent Way

According to cognitive psychologists and transformational generative linguists

language learning does not take place through mimicry since people can create
utterances they have never heard before. That is the reason why language must not
be considered a product of habit formation, but rather a rule formation. Language
acquisition must be a procedure where people use their own thinking processes, or
cognition to discover the rules of the language they are acquiring. The emphasis on
human cognition led to the name “cognitive code” being applied to a new general
approach to language teaching. Caleb Gattegno’s Silent Way did not emerge from
the cognitive code approach it shares certain principles with it. In the Silent Way
teaching should be subordinated to learning.
The goal of the method is to enable students to use the language for selfexpression
to express their thoughts, perceptions and feelings. In order to do this
they need to develop independence from the teacher, to develop their own inner
criteria for correctness.

The principles of the Silent Way:

- the teacher is a technician or engineer, only the learner can do the
learning but the teacher can focus the students’ perceptions, force their awareness;
- for much of the students-teacher interaction the teacher is silent; he is
still very active setting up situations to force awareness; when the teacher speaks it
is to give clues not to model the language; student-student verbal interaction is
desirable and is encouraged;
- the students’ native language can be used to give instructions when
necessary to help a student improve his/her pronunciation; the native language is

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also used during the feed-back sessions;
- vocabulary is restricted at first;
- there is a focus on the structures of the language, although explicit
grammar rules may never be supplied;
- pronunciation is worked on from the beginning, it is important that
students acquire the melody of the language;
- all four skills are worked on from the beginning of the course, although
there is a sequence in that students learn to read or write what they have already
produced orally; the skills reinforce what students are learning;
- the culture as reflected in people’s own unique world view is
inseparable from their language;
- the teacher never gives a formal test, he assesses student learning all the
time; the teacher must be responsive to immediate learning needs; the teacher does
not praise or criticize student behaviour since this would interfere with students
developing their own inner criteria; the teacher looks for steady progress, not
perfection;
- students’ errors are seen as a natural, indispensable part of the learning
process, errors are inevitable since the students are encouraged to explore the
language; the teacher uses student errors as a basis for deciding where further work
is necessary;
- there is no fixed linear, structural syllabus, instead the teacher starts
with what the students know and builds from one structure to the next; the
previously introduced structures are continually being recycled.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- sound-colour chart (The chart contains blocks of colour, each one
representing a sound in the target language. The chart allows students to produce
sound combinations in the target language without doing so through repetition.)
- teacher’s silence (The teacher gives just as much help as is necessary and
then is silent. Even in error correction the teacher will only supply a verbal answer
as a last resort.)
- peer correction
- rods (Rods can be used to provide visible actions or situations for any
language structure to introduce it, or to enable students to practice using it.)
- self correction gestures (The teacher indicates for example that each of
his fingers represents a word in a sentence and uses this to locate the trouble spot
for the student.)
- word chart
- Fidel charts (The teacher points to the colour coded Fidel charts in order
that students can associate the sounds of the language with their spelling.)
- structured feed-back (The teacher accepts the students’ comments in a
non-defensive manner hearing things that will help give him direction for where he
should work when the class meets again.) (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 51-72)

1.5. Suggestopedia

One of the alternative methods based on language acquisition belonging to the

natural approach is Suggestopedia. The originator of the method, Georgi Lozanov
asserts that we set up psychological barriers to learning. Suggestopedia has been
developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful and
to help them overcome the barriers to learning. Learning is facilitated in a relaxed,
comfortable environment. A student can learn from the environment even if his
attention is not directed to it. The student must trust and respect the teacher’s
authority and activate his imagination. The teacher is supposed to increase her
students’ confidence that they will be successful learners. The more confident the
students feel, the better they will learn. When students’ attention is off the form of

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the language and on the process of communicating, students will learn best. The
texts students work from contain lengthy dialogues in the target language. Next to
the text is a translation in the learners’ mother tongue. There are some notes on the
structures in the conversation as well. The teacher presents the dialogue during two
concerts; the first phase of this presentation is the receptive phase. In the first
concert the teacher reads the dialogue, matching her or his voice to the rhythm and
pitch of the music. In this way, the “whole brain” of students becomes activated.
The learners follow the target language dialogue as the teacher reads it out loud.
They can also check the translation. In the second concert the students simply relax
while the teacher reads the dialogue at a normal rate of speed. After this phase the
students read over the dialogue again before they go to sleep and again when they
get up the next morning. In the activation phase students engage in various
activities including dramatizations, games, songs and question-and-answer
exercises.
The goal of the method is to accelerate the process by which students learn to
use a foreign language for everyday communication. This is to be done by breaking
down the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situation.
The principles of Suggestopedia:
- the teacher is the authority in the classroom, who must be trusted and
respected by the students – once the students trust the teacher, they feel secure,
they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited;
- all types of interactions are to be found in case of the method, however first
it is the teacher that initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with
individuals right from the beginning of a course; in the beginning of the course the
students can only respond nonverbally, later the students have more control of the
target language and can respond more appropriately, and even initiate interaction
themselves. Students interact with each other from the beginning in various
activities directed by the teacher;
- native language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialogue
clear, the teacher uses the mother tongue in lesson when necessary; as the course
proceeds, the teacher uses the native language less and less;
- vocabulary is emphasized, the success of the method can be put down to
the large number of words that can be acquired;
- grammar is dealt with explicitly but minimally, students will learn best if
their conscious attention is focused not on the language forms but on using the
language;
- pronunciation is developed by reading out loud;
- the culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of people who
speak the language. The use of the fine arts is also common in Suggestopedia;
- speaking communicatively is emphasized, students also read the target
language and write, for example compositions;
- evaluation is conducted on students’ normal in-class performance and not
through formal tests;
- at the beginning levels, errors are not corrected immediately since the
emphasis is on students communicating their intended meaning; when errors occur
the teacher uses delayed correction;
- the syllabus used in the method is functional.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- peripheral learning (This activity is based on the idea that we perceive much
more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. By putting
posters on the classroom walls students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly.
Posters are changed from time to time to provide grammatical information that is
appropriate to what the learners are studying.)
- choose a new identity (Learners choose a target language name and a new
profession or trade. In someone else’s shoes the learners will be less inhibited

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while using the target language.)
- role play. (Larsen-Freeman 1986: 72-89)

1.6. Community Language Learning

The Community Language Learning method takes its principle from the more
general Counselling-Learning approach developed by Charles A. Curran. Curran
studied adult learning for many years. A language counsellor means someone who
is a skilful understander of the struggle students face as they attempt to internalize
another language. By understanding students’ fears and being sensitive to them, he
can help students overcome their negative feelings and turn them into positive
energy to further their learning.
The goals of teachers are to make their students to learn how to use the target
language communicatively. They want their students to learn about their own
learning to take responsibility for it.
The principles of Community Language Learning:
- the teacher is a counsellor who recognizes how threatening a new learning
situation can be for adult learners so he understands and supports his students in
their struggle to acquire the target language;
- the student-teacher interaction in the Community Language Learning
method changes within the lesson and over time, this method is neither student nor
teacher centred but; rather teacher-student centred, with both being decision
makers in the class; building a relationship with and among students is very
important;
- where possible, literal native equivalents are given to the target language
words that have been transcribed, this makes their meaning clear and allows
students to combine the target language words to create new sentences;
- active vocabulary is very important as conversations in the target language
can replace native language conversations;
- the focus shifts from grammar to sentence formation, language is for
communication;
- pronunciation is developed by reading out loud;
- culture is integrated with language;
- the most important skills are the receptive ones and speaking the language,
reading and writing are worked on;
- whatever evaluation is conducted it should be in keeping with the principles
of the method, a classroom test should be more of an integrative test than a discrete
point one, students are asked to write a paragraph rather than being asked to answer
a question which deals with only one point of the language at a time; students often
self-evaluate to become aware of their own progress;
- errors are corrected in a non threatening way, the teacher repeats correctly
what the student has said incorrectly;
- the syllabus is designed primarily by the students.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- transcription (The teacher transcribes the students’ tape-recorded target
language conversation.)
- reflective listening (The students relax and listen to their own voices
speaking the target language on the tape.)
- human computer (The student is “in control” of the teacher when she tries to
say the word or phrase. The teacher repeats the phrase as often as the student wants
to practise it. The teacher does not correct the student’s mispronunciation in any
way.)
- small group tasks (The small groups make new sentences with the words on
the transcript. Afterward the groups share the sentences they made with the rest of
the class.)

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(Larsen-Freeman 1986: 89-109)

1.7. Total Physical Response (TPR)

The idea of TPR originates from James Asher, who found that adults’ second or
foreign language learning could have similar developmental patterns to that of
children’s language acquisition. A baby spends a lot of months listening to the
people around it long before it says a word. In Krashen’s The Natural Approach
(1983) the students listen to the teacher using the target language communicatively
from the beginning of the instruction throughout the course. The teacher helps her
students to understand her by using pictures and occasional words in the students’
native language and by being as expressive as possible. In TPR students listen and
respond to the spoken target language commands of their teacher.
The goal of TPR is to have the students enjoy their experience in learning to
communicate in a foreign language. The TPR was developed in order to reduce the
stress people feel when studying foreign languages and encourage students to
persist in their study beyond the beginning level of proficiency.

The principles of TPR:

- the teacher is the director of all student behaviour, the students are imitators
of her nonverbal model, in 10-20 hours of instruction students will be ready to
speak;
- interaction is between the teacher and the whole group of students and with
individual students;
- the method is introduced in the students’ native language, after the
introduction rarely would the mother tongue be used ;
- grammatical structures and vocabulary are emphasized over other
language areas;
- pronunciation is developed through listening mostly;
- culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively;
- skills: understanding the spoken word should precede its production, the
spoken language is emphasized over written language, students often do not learn
to read the commands they have already learnt to perform until after 10 hours of
instruction;
- formal evaluations can be conducted by commanding individual students to
perform a series of actions;
- teachers should be tolerant of errors and only correct major errors, even
these should be corrected gently;
- the syllabus is multi-strand.
Activities characteristic of the method:
- using commands to direct behaviour
- role reversal (Students command their teacher and classmates to perform
some actions. Students will want to speak after 10 to 20 hours of instruction.
Students should not be encouraged to speak until they are ready.)
- action sequence (Teacher gives three connected commands. As students
learn more and more of the target language, a longer series of connected commands
can be given which together comprise a whole procedure.) (Larsen-Freeman 1986:
109-123)

2. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH

This approach has preserved quite a lot of characteristic features from both the
cognitive and the natural approaches. The representatives of the Communicative

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Approach (CA) acknowledge that structures and vocabulary are important but they
emphasize the acquisition of linguistic structures or vocabulary as well. When we
communicate we use the language to accomplish some function such as arguing,
persuading and promising. We carry out these functions with a social context.
Before speaking about this approach we must clarify what we mean by
communication.
2.1. Characteristics of communicative classes:

Communicative language teaching is

• content based
language is a tool for getting information about the world. In this approach
message is more important than the form. Interdisciplinary or in another word:
cross-curricular approach, by which content can be integrated into English
teaching, is based on a lot of authentic materials taken from various text types such
as newspapers, journals, pamphlets, guidebooks etc. These texts cover a wide range
of topics, so in addition to broadening your students’ minds, they will build up their
vocabulary as well.
• intercultural
Foreign language learning is often foreign culture learning. In order to
understand just what foreign culture learning is, one needs to understand
the nature of acculturation and culture shock. A person's world view, selfidentity,
and systems of thinking, acting, feeling, and communicating can be
disrupted by a change from one culture to another
• holistic
It means that the whole personality of the learner must be developed during
language teaching. This term related to communicative language teaching, will
focus teachers attention on the fact that students’ ways of thinking should also be
developed.
• experiential
The students are supposed to experience that the target language acquired is
very useful in life. Authentic texts such as brochures, instructions, cookery books
etc. make students feel how practicable their knowledge in English is.
• learner-centred
Learners’ needs are very important in communicative language. Activities are
chosen according to the various learning styles and they also must be age relevant.
The goal of communicative language teaching is to make students
communicatively competent. Let us examine what the term communicative
competence means.

2.2. Defining Communicative Competence

The term "communicative competence" was coined by Dell Hymes (1967,

1972) -a sociolinguist who was convinced that Chomsky's (1965) notion of
competence (see Chapter Two) was too limited. Communicative competence, then,
is that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages
and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts.
In the 1970s, research on communicative competence distinguished between
linguistic and communicative competence (Hymes 1967, Paulston 1974) to
highlight the difference between knowledge "about" language forms and
knowledge that enables a person to communicate functionally and interactively.
Seminal work on defining communicative competence was carried out by
Michael Canale and Merrill Swain (1980), now the reference point for virtual
discussions of communicative competence vis-á-vis second language teach in
Canale and Swain's (1980), and later in Canale's (1983) definition, four :different
components, or subcategories, make up the construct of communicative

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competence. The first two subcategories reflect the use of the linguistic stem itself.
(Brown 1994: 226-250)

(1) Grammatical competence is that aspect of communicative competence that

encompasses "knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax,
sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology" (Canale and Swain 1980:29). It is the
competence that we associate with mastering the linguistic code of a language, the
"linguistic" competence of Hymes and Paulston, referred to above.

(2) The second subcategory is discourse competence, the complement of

grammatical competence in many ways. It is the ability we have to connect
sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series
of utterances. Discourse means everything from simple spoken conversation to
lengthy written texts (articles, books, and the like). While grammatical competence
focuses on sentence-level grammar, discourse competence is concerned with
intersentential relationships.
The last two subcategories define the more functional aspects of communication.

(3) Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of the socio-cultural rules of

language and of discourse. This type of competence "requires an understanding of
the social context in which language is used: the roles of the participants, the
information they share, and the function of the interaction. Only in a full context of
this kind can judgments be made on the appropriateness of a particular utterance
(Savignon 1983: 37).

(4) The fourth subcategory is strategic competence, a construct that is

exceedingly complex. Canale and Swain (1980: 30) described strategic competence
as "the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into
action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance
variables or due to insufficient competence." Savignon (1983:40) paraphrases this
as "the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules-or
limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, and inattention." In
short, it is the competence underlying our ability to make repairs, to cope with
imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through "paraphrase,
circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing, as well as shifts in
register and style" (Savignon 1983: 40-41).

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