Way of Teaching a Language

There is no one 'correct' way of teaching a language. Do you agree with this statement?

Title: There is no one 'correct' way of teaching a language. Do you agree with this statement? Explain your view, drawing on your own experience and on your reading.

Introduction

It is the contention of this essay that the above statement is appropriate and that there is no 'correct' way of teaching a language. The complexity of the various methodologies of language acquisition is paradoxical when compared with the ease with which infants acquire language skills, since this natural process is not easy to replicate at a later stage when other languages are acquired. The successful TESOL practitioner recognises that just as each learner has individual needs and skills, so the teacher must be sufficiently flexible in a range of approaches to deal appropriately with these. This essay will discuss the various ways in which these challenges can be met and why there is no 'correct' way of teaching a language.

Rod Ellis (1997) has pointed out that there had, until recently, been little systematic study of the way in which people acquire a second language and that this might be the due to the fact that more people than ever before feel the need to acquire a second language. Ellis (1997) posits that this could be related to the fact that due to increasing globalisation, it has become vital that the majority of the population have access to additional language skills for reasons of employment and/or extending their education. Indeed, the two imperatives for learning may be complementary and interdependent. The teacher of a language therefore must take into account the reason why a person is seeking to acquire a language, as motivation is an important aspect of language acquisition and therefore language teaching. Hence, the teacher of an additional language should first determine why a student is attempting to acquire the language in order to facilitate the best possible learning outcome for every pupil. Ellis (1997) also suggests asking successful learners of a second language how they achieved it, even though this provides limited information. The point is that teaching language has to be a mutually informative process with the teacher displaying flexibility of approach dependent upon a changing situation whilst simultaneously maintaining a structured framework for the predetermined learning outcome.

With regard to this aspect of language teaching, i.e. the teacher's learning outcome, it should be stressed that clearly, it is not possible to teach every aspect of a language and certainly not to provide a generically applicable approach for the teaching of language as all learners are different. In addition, as Ellis (1997) points out, grammar alone is simply too complex to be covered comprehensively. However, Ellis (1997) goes on to argue that a successful strategy for teaching language is the use of triggering further acquisition by initiating a stimulating and connected structure which can be extended. Using the example of grammar, Ellis (1997) suggests the convincing theory that it ...