Teaching English Pronunciation Skills to the Asian Learner. A Cultural Complexity or Subsumed Piece of Cake?

Article Title

Teaching English Pronunciation Skills to the Asian Learner. A Cultural Complexity or Subsumed Piece of Cake?

Author

Paul Robertson

Bio Data

About the author - Paul Robertson received his Ph.D in 2002. He has lived in Korea since 1997

Introduction:

For the last two decades academics and publishers have propounded theories on pronunciation acquisition and on pronunciation training. For the greater part, they have paid lip service to the critical issue underlying both the aforementioned, namely the culture behind the target of the pronunciation theory. With a broad sweep, all L2 learners were grouped as though there were no differences that could possibly affect the learner. Politzer and McGroarty's 1985 survey, fleetingly cited by Ellis (1996:559) notes the early suggestion that cultural differences are important. Carmichael (2001) identifies the issues that immediately precede the role of pronunciation teaching, whilst Robertson (2002a, 2002b) examines the Korean learner's characteristics and the impact of Confucianism on the Korean learners learning style. Otlowski (1998) leads the future in Asian pronunciation teaching by arguing for pronunciation programs to be included in all L2 students training, and further believes there is optimism for success in the outcomes of such programs.

Yet Dash (2002) researched and analyzed the Korean classroom and found that an English Only policy was seriously flawed. Thus we have a chasm between what some believe is the academically ideal way to proceed in any pronunciation program, and those who consider clearly identifying cultural peculiarities within the target (Asian learning zone) leads to identification of alternate approaches in delivery of pronunciation programs in Asia. However, despite propounding the inclusion of pronunciation programs, (Otlowski, 1998, Kenworthy, 1996) the method of delivery is thrown into doubt by Dash's (2002) findings. This paper will submit, {i} based upon the evidence to date, that pronunciation programs in Asia must and can be delivered successfully by native speakers of English irrespective of their varying levels of educational background. This view is supported by Kenworthy (1996:69) whilst Fromkin and Rodman (1998:349) extend the category to those with near native speech. Secondly, {ii} that the mode of delivery of a pronunciation program must relate to that particular countries culture so as to complement, and not offend, cultural complexities.

Otlowski (2001) notes the oft cited view that little relationship exists between teaching pronunciation in the classroom and attained proficiency in pronunciation, which was supported by research done by Suter (1976, 233) and Suter & Purcell (1980, 286). They concluded that pronunciation practice in class had little effect on the learner's pronunciation skills and moreover, 'that the attainment of accurate pronunciation in a second language is a matter substantially beyond the control of the educators,' Suter & Purcell (1980, 286). The findings were subject to the caveat (as also noted throughout literature in numerous places) that variables

The Study of English Learners’ Synthesizing Process While Reading

A. Introduction

This research was done by Lu Fang Lin, Ph. D, an assistant professor in the Foreign Language teaching and Research Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, Taiwan, who is involved in research into English teaching in the EFL context and English reading comprehension instruction. This research was published in online journal website at http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/March_08_home.php in March 2008.

This research investigated how English learners can retell two kinds of text with culturally familiar and unfamiliar topics, in this case they are Chinese and non-Chinese topics. Firstly, Lin, the researcher examined whether there was difference of English learners’ way of synthesizing between those types of passages/texts and it was showed that there was no significant difference. Then secondly, synthesizing information was classified by function and strategy to explain how the participants utilized the synthesizing process to comprehend an English passage on Chinese versus non-Chinese topics. Thirdly, Lin, the researcher, explained the process of how the participant utilized prior knowledge to produce synthesizing information. And in the last section of her paper, the researcher gave some recommendations for classroom practice in an effort to help language teachers apply the result of the study to the actual instructional context.




B. Body
In the introduction of this research, it is said that most of researcher in the field of reading comprehension have agreed that the readers’ prior knowledge can affect the degree of text comprehension. Furthermore, a great number of empirical studies have demonstrated significant impact of prior knowledge on reading comprehension. Because of its important role, prior knowledge is viewed as the key resource in the meaning construction of reading process. The followings are summary of each subtitle in this study.

Cognitive reading process

In cognitive science, reading can be viewed as a literacy process connected with cognition which refers to any internal or mental aspects of reading. This process included attending, analyzing, associating, predicting, inferring, synthesizing, generalizing, and monitoring and these processes might operate on various sizes of text units which are depended on the reader purpose. However, these all cognitive processes require knowledge. Then, prior knowledge will be added as a factor influencing the operation of these cognitive processes.

Macrostructure Formation during comprehension

Kintsch claimed that macrostructure formation occurred as an integral of comprehension. During the comprehension process, a reader can select a macroproposition and delete several micropositions. Thus, in forming a generalization, several microproposition can be replaced by an appropriate macroproposition which is called reduction process.

Effectiveness of Prior Knowledge in L2 (second language) Reading Comprehension

In previous studies, the effect of cultural specific prior knowledge and global knowledge still compete with each other. For example, research on the effect of content schemata held the perspective that L2 readers’ culturally specific schemata might cause reading difficulty. Therefore, comprehension of a culturally unfamiliar text was more difficult than comprehension of a culturally familiar text. On the other hand, readers’ comprehension of text could be attributed to cross-cultural prior knowledge, which was not culturally bound but a global knowledge of the world. Some parts of this type of knowledge in some studies could be termed as subject knowledge or content knowledge which might as well, to some degree, facilitate L2 students’ reading comprehension.

Restraints and Conflicts in Previous Research

1. The cognitive process variable, the synthesizing process, has not been examined closely.
2. the inconsistent results
3. Conflicting opinions that that non-natives had more trouble synthesizing the information

Methodology Elaboration

In this study, the researcher elaborated on the methodology used in previous research by Cohen (1988) and in previous research on the issue of macrostruture. In the previous experiments for measuring macrostructure comprehension (Kintsch & van Dijk, 1978; Guindon & Kintsch, 1984; Lorch, Lorch, & Mathews, 1985), they focused on the recognition task to study the speed and accuracy with which reading times for topic and detail sentences were calculated, and words from topic and detail sentences were recognized. In this study the researcher used the retelling technique to examine how L2 readers form macrostructures. As used to analyze readers’ retellings, synthesized information at intra- and inter sentential levels might “[come] from more than one part of the passage” (Alberta Education, 1986, p. 44) and included synthesis of single words, clauses, phrases, or sentences. For a higher level of synthesizing information, the reader might reconstruct the author’s words and ideas and produce synthesizing information across paragraphs. Also, to show the reader’s dynamic development of reading process, the present study increased the number of the topics to prolong the period of data collection.
To generate a concept of English learners’ general English reading, the present study added more topics that did not demand discipline-specific information.



Research Purpose and Research Questions

The purpose of the research:

1. To examine the effects of prior knowledge on L2 readers’ synthesizing process of the text with cultural specific topics (Chinese topics and non Chinese topics).

2. To explore how English learners apply their prior knowledge to comprehend English passages with Chinese and non-Chinese topics.



Three research questions were formulated to guide this study:

1. Is there a difference between English learners’ synthesizing information while retelling passages with Chinese versus non-Chinese topics?

2. How do English learners utilize the synthesizing process to comprehend an English passage on Chinese versus non-Chinese topics?

3. How do English learners use prior knowledge to produce synthesizing information?



Methodology

Participants

The participants in this study were from a senior high school in Taipei, Taiwan. In this study, the researcher considered the students’ cultural background and made an adapted Informal Reading Inventory (IRI). After each student was given an English reading test through the IRI, 14 Grade 11 senior high school students were selected to join the study. According to the results of the IRI, their English reading proficiency level was at the grade seven instructional level. The rationale for using this level of students as participants was that according to teachers’ comments on this group of participants’ general English ability, their English academic achievements were at the top ten from the highest scores in their class and they would be better able to express their own opinions.



The Procedure of the Study

The study began with a retelling practice session to ensure that all participants have the necessary abilities to retell the passage in Mandarin, if their retelling performances were satisfied, each of them joined individual retelling meeting. After that, the researcher had an immediate interview with each participant to confirm some vague description in his/her retellings.

Retelling Assessment Technique

The retelling technique encourages participants to retell the story in their own words. With such perspective, participants may be encouraged to restate the essential part of the original text, relate what they knew about the content of the text and to reconstruct the information they have just read without looking at the passage again.

Materials

In this study, twelve passages were used as reading materials for the retellings.

Six passages have topics on Chinese culture:

1. Chinese Farming (CF1),
2. Chinese New Year (CNY3),
3. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (SYS5),
4. The Great Wall (GW7),
5. The History of Tea (HT9), and
6. Cooking and Eating (CE11).
7. The other six passages have topics on non-Chinese culture including Canadian and European historical events, peoples, and customs. They are;
8. River of Salmon (RS2),
9. Railway across Canada (RC4),
10. First Peoples in Canada (FPC6),
11. Easter (EAS8),
12. Fishing in Canada (FC10), and
13. Ways of Sending a Message (WSM12)

Scoring and Labeling the Participants’ Retelling Protocols

After the participant finished retelling, the researcher transcribed the recorded retelling in Mandarin and further translated it into English. Then the researcher adopted the DRP procedure for judging the students’ retellings and divided the participants’ retellings into smaller meaningful independent units called thought units. A thought unit is a group of words representing a syntactically grammatical and meaningful unit of information represented in a text or retold by the participants. For example, one simple sentence is regarded as one unit for it conveys a piece of meaningful information independently.

After the participant’s retelling was divided into thought units, the parsed retelling information was further screened and labeled into synthesizing information (S). The thought units of this category were then summed up. To ensure the credibility of the analysis, the researcher asked another PH. D. student who was a native English speaker as a second rater.

Results and Discussion

Synthesizing Information

The statistic analysis in Means and Standard Deviations for Synthesizing Information Chinese and Non-Chinese provided the answer to the first research question that there is no significant difference in the participants’ synthesizing information when retelling the passages with (on) Chinese and those with non-Chinese topics. The possible reason can be that the participants may have had the competence of an awareness of the macrosturures and then combine some information in the text to make a synthesized statement over the passage on culturally familiar and unfamiliar topic.

A process of integration
In this study, most participants generalized ideas from several sentences and produced a larger gist or general meaning. That is, one synthesizing statement extracted the words directly from two or three sentences and interweaved another new statement.

A process of reconstruction

In this study, the participant reconstructed the meaning of the text by using their own words rather than the author’s words. Such kind of synthesizing information usually conveys the essential meaning presented in sentences.

A process of deletion

In this study, the participant retold a generalized statement by reducing some minor details, especially those with unfamiliar vocabulary. In the interview, the participants expressed that they did not use much of their life experience to understand this unfamiliar word because they did not have that in Taiwan. They stated that they had no idea about the words, so they skipped retelling the segment with unknown vocabulary in it, and thus made a generalized statement for the paragraph with their general knowledge of date sequence.

A pragmatic strategy of opening a talk and filling up the gap
In the beginning section of most retelling meetings, there was a period of silence. Most participants usually prefaced their retelling with a short over-generalization for the whole passage. Most participants directly used the topic to produced such synthesizes. These broad over-generalizations were still categorized as synthesizing information in this study although they were a much different synthesis that did not exactly summarize main ideas from the original text. Such over-generalizations could be a strategy they used to opening their talk.


Utilization of cross-cultural prior knowledge

In this study, the participant expressed that they did not have much of prior knowledge about non-Chinese topics, so they mostly could not retell many detailed contents of the passage but they could retell synthesizing information.

General findings can be summed up to show that the production of synthesizing information may primarily depend on the participant’s prior knowledge. If the participant lacks culturally specific knowledge about the text, they may rely on their cross-cultural prior knowledge and thus synthesize information in generalized way. In this study, the passages with non-Chinese topics may include several messages related to culturally specific prior knowledge and cross-cultural prior knowledge. When retelling the passages with non-Chinese topics, synthesizing information may occur as often as in passages with Chinese topics. Therefore, there is no difference found in synthesizing information between the two types of passages. This study also finds that if the participant has neither culturally specific knowledge nor cross-cultural prior knowledge, most of the message in the text cannot be synthesized.


Author’s Recommendations

1. In this study, most participants could provide a synthesized topic statement in the beginning of their retellings. This result recommends that the instructor notify the students the text with a topic or a paragraph with a topic sentence.
2. This finding can also suggest that the instructor may lead the students to read a passage without a topic first and ask them to assign a topic for the passage they have just read.
3. The study finds that the synthesizing information integrates main ideas from several sentences. The teaching activity can be that after learners finish reading a passage, the instructor asks them to figure out the essential parts in the passage and use the following patterns to lead them to describe the generalized concepts of the segments of a text
4. The result of this study shows that the participants still can do well in synthesizing the information from the English passages on non-Chinese topics. The result recommends that except the familiar topics, the teacher can lead the student to read a passage on unfamiliar topic to produce synthesizing retellings as long as the readability of the passage fits English learners’ English reading ability.
5. In this study, the researcher recommended another way of summary writing. Teachers may also focus on the summary retelling activity for collapsing a whole paragraph into smaller meaningful chunks, pointing out essential features in each chunk, and then asking learners to integrate the essential features in larger synthesizing statements.

C. Conclusion

In this study, this group of teenagers has proved that they have the ability to retell synthesizing information over familiar and unfamiliar topic passages with the assistance of their prior knowledge.Moreover, the results of the study provide further evidence in the field of prior knowledge studies to ensure the essential impact of the cross-cultural knowledge (Brantmeier, 2005; Hammadou, 2000). More than that, the findings of the study suggest that the reader’s cross-cultural knowledge can facilitate English learners to operate a synthesizing process. In contrast, the result of the study was not in agreement with Cohen et al’s (1988) conclusion that non-natives had more trouble synthesizing the information at the intra- and inter sentential levels as well as across paragraphs than natives. The different result from this study and the classification of synthesizing information can add new knowledge to the field of English learners’ cognitive reading process. In the near future, the researcher will include other groups of English learners with different levels of English reading abilities to further examine the non-natives’ synthesizing process via culturally specific and cross-cultural topic passages.



D. Comment

After reading and trying to understand this journal, I can say that this is a good journal. It stands for some reasons. First, this journal is written systematically and has complete composition / content, also the author biography and references are provided. It means that this journal can be used for academic usage. Second, the method in retelling assessment in this study is slightly different from that of recall. The third reason, then, it provides data of the study and it seems quite valid because in collecting data the researcher asked another PhD student who was a native English speaker as a second rater to ensure the credibility of the analysis. Then, the last reason, but not the least, I said that this is a good journal because this journal provide a study which can give a new finding/result that fix the misunderstanding/restraint in the previous research.

Finally, I suggest to other student to read this journal because this journal provides new knowledge which might be useful for us. After all, this journal uses communicative language and easy to be understood as well.

Critique of Kazuya Saito in “The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English”

by: Tony Anggadha

In his article entitled “The Influence of Explicit Phonetic Instruction on Pronunciation in EFL Settings: The Case of English Vowels and Japanese Learners of English” Kazuya Saito stated that Japanese learners have difficulty in learning English pronunciations, especially in segmental phonology. This is because Japanese learners have to learn many phonemes that do not exist in Japanese but do exist in English. Experiments are made to solve this problem, and the result demonstrated that explicit phonetic instructions enhance learners’ pronunciation of the target language. This result is true and can be accepted. Moreover, most researchers agree that teaching phonetic is more effective through explicit instructions.

Kazuya said that it is important to give attention to pronunciation teaching in English education. He explains two difficulties in teaching pronunciation. First, the class cannot always have native speakers of English as teachers. Second, since teachers are usually non-native speakers of English, they might not be confident, or still not competent enough, to be able to provide students feedback that is very crucial to successful pronunciation teaching. This study emphasizes how explicit phonetic instruction can improve pronunciation teaching in Japan and presents a research-based experiment that provides tangible results in which Japanese learners of English improve their speech production greatly. In addition, this study explores the capabilities of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in order to make pronunciation teaching more explicit. Ultimately, the present study aims to make a valuable contribution to the field of TEFL, particularly for Japanese learners of English. The pedagogical idea describe in this study may be advanced to other EFL contexts in Asian countries which are similar to that of Japan.

If we see from the subject matter, the research is important to discuss. As Kazuya quoted form Wei, this subject is necessary to discuss because although English has become more disseminated globally the importance of pedagogies for English has increased, pronunciation teaching is still not given enough attention, especially in English education in Asian countries. So, this article is really helps for the development of pronunciation teaching.

Based on my experience, I agree that the differences in phonemes can cause difficulties in learning others language. For instance, when I try to spell ”teuing”, a sundanese word, it is hard for me to spell /eu/ (I do not know what is the correct symbol), because I don not have that phoneme in my daily talk/conversation. I face the same problem when I spell /æ/, because this phoneme does not exist in Indonesian. This result of the study shows that Japanese learners of English have difficulties in spelling phonemes whose phonemic inventories differ considerably from that of English. It is no surprise that they have difficulties in pronouncing English due to the fact that English has many phones that do not exist in Japanese. In fact, Tsujimura notes the segmental differences between English and Japanese both in vowels (English: 12, Japanese: 5) and consonants (English: 24, Japanese: 14). According to Ohata (2004), many Japanese learners of English have difficulties pronouncing certain sounds that don’t exist in Japanese but do in English.

In my point of view, the learners usually change the phonemes which “strange” for them with the closest phoneme of their mother tongue. This opinion is based on Fledge’s study. His inventions states that second language learners usually substitute the closest first language phones for similar ones.

As the conclusion, it is common for English learners have difficulties in learning pronunciation, especially segmental phonemes which do not exist in their first language. As the result, the learners will search for the closest phoneme for the second language phoneme and replace the phoneme.

Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners

Derrick Nault
Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan
Reviewed by: Khumaidah

In a June 2006 critiquing standard approaches for teaching literature to English learners in Japanese university settings, Derrick Nault reports on his findings “Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners” which focuses on the specific technique to improve students’ English competence by using an intercultural approach-a new concept as an alternate pedagogical framework. He describes the concept by doing three specific techniques include in Culture Clashes, English Snapshots and Contrastive Analysis. This finding is fascinating and understandable to be applied.

Derrick Nault, in his study “Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence in Asian EFL Learners” describes three specific approaches as his technique in improving students’ abilities. The Culture Clashes as the first step of the technique is done by demonstrating a clash of cultural values or conceptions based on a scene from a story. For the following step- The English Snapshots, writer use passages from literary works to raise learners’ awareness of non-standard varieties of English. Referring to the last step-The Contrastive Analysis, learners involve comparing the cultural assumptions in a text and contrasting features of particular cultural. The writer believed that this last step is one of the best ways to draw attention to the importance of culture in the communication process.

Regarding to the four most common methods for teaching English-language literature in Japan-stylistics, literary criticism, the English language teaching (ELT) approach, and the yakudoku method (“translation method”), the intercultural approach seems to modification of the English language teaching (ELT) approach. Derrick Nault claims that no single method can be used in all contexts, “As teachers and students vary in learning styles, it is up to the instructor to decide what is most effective and practical for a given educational context. Hence, the weak points of standard approaches should be kept in mind and strive to involve students in their own learning, pique their interest in reading, raise their cultural awareness, and improve their language skills”. From his argument it is as if he was not satisfy with the effectiveness of the common method used in Japan but in my opinion Derrick Nault actually just want to find suitable method for his students although he must examine hardly with insufficient sources and references because this technique is still the new one. 

Derrick Nault tells that while language teaching traditionally has treated language and culture separately, more recently ELT specialists have begun emphasizing that linguistic competence alone is insufficient for a learner to be truly proficient in a language. What is also needed, they argue, is an understanding of the culture in which the target language is used. But Seelye in (1997) said that “the study of language cannot be divorced from the study of culture, and vice versa. The wherewithal to function in another culture requires both prowess in the language and knowledge of the culture” (p. 23). Then Derrick Nault inform that an intercultural approach to ELT is advantageous in that it integrates both language and culture into lessons, more adequately preparing learners for real world communicative contexts. Responding to his argument, I assume that this approach is designed to be interesting and challenge method in which teacher and learners should be more active than usual because as my experience, learning with the real world context or condition will be more joyful and easy to understand the lesson. We can see how and when we use the language. 

In the last discussion, Derrick Nault tells,” I have yet to gather concrete data on the effectiveness of the teaching techniques I have just outlined. Nonetheless, I would judge my intercultural competence-oriented literature lessons to be successful”. Besides, he has even had students express a desire to visit African and other Asian nations as a result of lessons based on world literatures. What all of this means for actual language acquisition is difficult to say, but an intercultural approach to ELT and literature does appear to intrigue and motivate learners and this can only help improve their English proficiency. It is also one of proof of intercultural effectiveness in literature class. Due to incomplete Derrick Nault’s concrete data, I wonder more about the effectiveness of intercultural approach. In short, I am interested in this new approach.

In conclusion, the intercultural approach which Derrick Nault recognized to improve students’ English competence seems to be good invention. The procedure of the technique is understandable enough. The reason that the research give in supporting his argument also logic but there is some suggestion for further research, it is better for the next research to provide detailed data and more supporting idea in order to make the reader more attract and fully understand with the procedure of the technique.

The Direct Method

A. Brief History

The natural method, also known as the direct method is often associated with Stephen Krashen and the late Tracy Terrell, but in fact had its beginnings over a hundred years ago in Europe where it began as a response to the grammar translation method. It represents are critical reaction to the teaching methods of the ancient Grammar Translation Method which produced knowledge about language rather than knowledge of language. The general goal of the Direct Method is to provide learners with a practically useful knowledge of language. They should learn to speak and understand the target language in everyday situations.The core feature is its emphasis on the spoken language. Other characteristic features include:

• ü Teaching vocabulary through pantomiming, realia and other visuals
• ü Teaching grammar through an inductive approach
• ü Focusing on question-answer patterns
• ü Stressing teacher-centeredness 

If we view the word natural in its most generic form, certainly speaking and listening would qualify as natural activities more than reading and writing. All people (excepting those with certain disabilities) naturally acquire speaking and listening skills, while reading and writing have to be taught. Conveying meaning through total physical response, such as hand gestures and other body language, is also, arguably, a naturally occurring communicative feature. Assimilating grammar rules through exposure to language is also a naturally occurring phenomenon for native learners, and all languages, of course, have some form of question-answer pattern as filling in information gaps is a primary purpose of language. Teacher centeredness may be the only feature that could be classified as artificial when placed in a language learning model.



B. The principles of the Direct Method

• The goal of teacher

The Direct Method has one very basic rule: no translation is allowed. In fact, 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 translation into the student’s native language. The goals of teachers in using the Direct Method are teachers intend that students learn how to communicate in the target language. In order to do this successfully, students should learn o think in the target language.

• The role of teacher and students

In the Direct Method the teacher direct the class activities and the student role is less passive. The teacher and the students are more like partners in teaching and learning process.

• Characteristics of the teaching or learning process

There some characteristics of the teaching and learning process include teachers who use Direct Method believe students need to associate meaning and the target language directly. In order to do this, when the teacher introduces a new target language word or phrase, he demonstrates its meaning through the use of relia, pictures or pantomime: he never translates into students’ native language. Students speak in the target language a great deal and communicate as if they were in real situation. In fact, the syllabus used in the Direct Method is based upon situation (for example, one unit would consist of language that people would use at the bank, another of the language that they use when going shopping) or topics (such as geography, money or weather). Grammar is taught inductively; that is the students are presented with example and they figure out the rule or generalization from the examples. An explicit grammar rule may never be given. Students practice the vocabulary by using new words in complete sentences.

• Interaction

In the Direct Method, the nature of students-teacher interaction and student-student interaction goes both ways, from teacher to students and from students to teacher, although the latter is often teacher-directed. Students converse with one another as well.

• View of language and culture

Dealing with the language and culture viewed is that language is primarily spoken, not written. Therefore, students study common everyday speech in he target language. They also study culture consisting of the history of the people who speak the target language is spoken, and information about the daily lives of the speakers of the language.

• Emphasis

The language skills that are emphasized are vocabulary over grammar. There was a marked change in teaching contents, however. The emphasis was now on knowledge of words and phrases useful for everyday life, and of factual knowledge about the target language country, its geography, major cities, industry, etc. In contrast to that the reading of great literary texts by the greatest authors, which is typical of the Grammar Translation Method, was given no priority. Note, however, that the still strong and influential faction of grammar school teachers considered this a debasing of the high principles of good education, and eventually many reformers were willing or forced to compromise when they fought for recognition of the new type of Oberrealschule as institutions entitled to issue school living certificates that granted access to university studies and were equal in status to grammar school diplomas. It is important to note this because for many years to come classroom reality was characterized by a mixture of methods and goals of teaching that had their origin no less in ancient grammar translation methods than in the reformist concepts of the Direct Method.

• Student’s native language

The teaching methods recommended by the new reform movement followed logically from the emphasis on providing a useful knowledge of target knowledge, because that can only be developed by the direct use of the target language in class. Rather than forcing learners to accumulate abstract knowledge about rules of grammar, declensions and conjugations, with translations as a test of knowledge, reformers proposed that the target language should be learnt like children learn their first language that is by using it in class. The students’ native language should not be used in the classroom.

• Evaluation

The evaluation is used in this method is students are asked to use the language, not demonstrate their knowledge about the language. They are asked to do so using both oral and written skills. For example, the students might be interviewed orally by the teacher or might be asked to write a paragraph about something they have studied.

• Error correction

When the teachers face students’ error, they employ various techniques; try to get students self-correct whenever possible.

C. The Techniques of the Direct Method



1) Reading Aloud

Students take turns reading section of a passage, play or dialog out aloud. At the end of each student’s turn, the teacher uses gestures, pictures, relia, examples, or other means to make the meaning of the section clear.



2) Question and Answer Exercise

The exercise is conducted only in the target language. Students are asked questions and answer in full sentences so that they practice with new words and grammatical structure. They have the opportunity to ask questions as well as answer them.



3) Getting Students to Self-Correct

The teacher of this class has the students self-correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said and an alternate answer the supplied. In other ways, for example, a teacher might simply repeat what a student has said; using a questioning voice to signal to the student that something was wrong with it. Another possibility is for the teacher to repeat what the student said, stopping just before the error. The student knows that the next word was wrong.



4) Conversation practice

The teacher asks students a number of questions in the target language, which the students have to understand to be able to answer correctly. For example, the teacher asked individual students questions about themselves. The questions contain a particular grammar structure. Then, the students were able to ask each other their own question using the same grammatical structure.



5) Fill in the blank Exercise

All the items of the exercises in this method are in the target language; furthermore, no explicit grammar rule would be applied. The students would have induced the grammar rule they need to fill the blanks from examples and practice with earlier parts of the lesson.



6) Dictation

The teacher read the passage three times. The first time the teacher it at normal speed, while the students just listen. The second time he reads the passage phrase by phrase, pausing long enough to allow students to write down what they have heard. The last time he teacher again reads at a normal speed, and students check their work.



7) Map Drawing

The students were given a map with the geographical features unnamed. Then the teacher gave the students instructions for all the geographical features of the map so that students would have a completely labeled map if they followed the instructions correctly. The students then instructed the teacher to do he same thing with a map he had drawn on the blackboard. Each student could have a turn giving the teacher instructions for finding and labeling one geographical feature.



8) Paragraph Writing

The teacher in this class asked the students to write a paragraph in their own words on the major geographical features of the map. They could have done this from their memory, or they could have used the reading passage in the lesson as a model.

References

Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 1986. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press, Inc

Schackne, Steve. 2004.. The Common Sense Approach: How One Teacher Organized a Speaking Course for 200 Chinese Graduate Students at www.DevelopingTeachers.Com.

www.uni-wuppertal.de\4_direct_method.htm