Teaching_Methods_Lecture_2_2025.pptx university version

This lecture presents modern teaching methods in medical education, emphasizing interactive, digital, and student-centered approaches. It explores how ICT tools enhance engagement, collaboration, and communication skills essential for future healthcare professionals.

1. Techniques, Textbooks, and Materials refers to the interconnected methods, resources, and tools used in education to facilitate learning .

2. With the backdrop of an overview of curriculum/course design and lesson planning, we turn now to the building blocks of those lessons: the techniques and materials and textbooks that you utilize in accomplishing your goals. The choices that you make about what to do in the classroom are informed and guided by what you know about learner characteristics , institutional structure, student needs and purposes , and of course the all-important set of lesson objectives that you have established

3. Questions for Reflection • What are the distinguishing characteristics of technique, task, activity, procedure, and other similar terms (that seem to be synonymous)? • What is the evolution of classroom techniques that led to our current understanding of communicative and task-based instruction? • What are some widely used techniques that can be chosen to accomplish various purposes in the classroom? • How might one evaluate the potential of a proposed textbook? By what guidelines? What are some tips for choosing and adapting a textbook? • How can one analyze and evaluate potential materials to incorporate into a lesson?

4. Techniques are the specific approaches and strategies teachers use to deliver content and engage learners, while textbooks are structured sets of educational materials. Materials encompass a broader range of resources, including traditional texts, digital content, and real-world examples, which can be adapted and integrated into teaching to support learning objectives, cater to different learning styles, and foster deeper understanding.

5. Techniques for Engaging with Materials Interactive Tasks: Include practical, reflective, and investigative activities within materials to actively involve learners, maintain focus, and promote deeper understanding. Varied Media: Use a mix of text, video, images, and real-world examples to cater to diverse learning styles and make information more interesting and accessible. Contextualization: Adapt materials to align with the specific needs, interests, and local context of the students to make learning more relevant. Active Learning: Encourage students to actively engage with content by making connections to their prior knowledge and exploring new information. Teacher-Led Activities: Use materials to supplement the teacher's efforts, but ensure that materials do not replace the teacher's role in instructional decision-making.

6. Types of Materials Text-Based Materials: Textbooks and Novels: Provide foundational content and structure for learning. Illustrated Books: Excellent for young learners to visualize concepts and engage with stories. Dictionaries: Provide definitions for vocabulary and are crucial at all levels. Anthologies: Collections of stories and poems to inspire imagination and appreciation of language.

7. Digital Resources: Multimedia: Includes videos, audio, images, and animations that enhance understanding. Websites and Applications: Offer interactive platforms and a wide range of resources.

8. Other Resources: Films, Plays, and Radio Programs: Can provide different perspectives and engage different senses. Atlases: Essential for geography and spatial learning, especially at secondary levels.

9. Task usually refers to a specialized form of technique, or more appropriately a series of techniques, with real-world-related communicative goals. The common thread running through half a dozen definitions of task is its focus on the authentic use of language for meaningful communicative purposes beyond the language classroom

10. Activity A popular and loosely defined term, activity usually refers to a reasonably unified set of student behaviors, limited in time, preceded by some direction from the teacher, with a particular objective. Activities include role-plays, drills, games, peer-editing, small-group information-gap exercises, and much more. Because an activity implies some sort of active performance on the part of learners, it is generally not used to refer to certain teacher behaviors like saying “good morning,” maintaining eye contact with students, explaining a grammar point, or writing a list of words on the chalkboard. Such teacher behaviors, however, can indeed be referred to as techniques (see below).

11. Procedure Richards and Rodgers (2001) used the term procedure to encompass “the actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that operate in teaching a language according to a particular method” (p. 26). Procedures, from this definition, include techniques, but the authors appear to have no compelling objection to viewing the terms synonymously. Thus, for Richards and Rodgers , this appears to be a catch-all term

12. Technique Even before Anthony (1963) discussed and defined the term, the language teaching profession generally accepted technique as a superordinate term to refer to various activities that either teachers or learners perform in the class room. In other words, techniques include all tasks and activities. They are almost always planned and deliberate. They are the product of a choice made by the teacher. And, for your purposes as a language teacher, they can comfortably refer to the pedagogical units or components of a classroom session. You can think of a lesson as consisting of a number of techniques, some teacher-centered, some learner-centered, some production-oriented, some comprehension-oriented, some clustering together to form a task, and some as tasks in and of themselves. We now turn to examine these classroom components of focus or activity.

13. The Manipulation–Communication Continuum Techniques can be thought of as existing along a continuum of possibilities between highly manipulative and very communicative. At the extreme end of the manipulative side, a technique is totally controlled by the teacher and implies a predictable response from students (Kurtz, 2011). Choral repetition and cued substitution drills are examples of oral techniques at this extreme. Other examples are dictation (listening/writing) and reading aloud.

14. At the communicative extreme, student responses are open-ended and unpredictable. Examples include storytelling, brainstorming, role-plays, discus sions , small group work, and some games. Teachers are usually in a less con trolled role here, as students become free to be creative with their responses and interactions with other students. However, keep in mind that a modicum of teacher control, whether overt or covert, should always be present in the classroom. In the words of van Lier (2007), “the dynamism (and tension) between the planned and predictable and the improvised and unpredictable is essential in the development of true action-based pedagogy, and I would argue, in all pedagogy” (p. 54).

15. It is most important to remember that the manipulation–communication scale does not correspond to the beginning-through-advanced proficiency continuum ! For too many years the language-teaching profession labored under the incorrect assumption that beginners must have isolated, mechanical bits and pieces of language programmed into them (typically through repetition or memorization drills) and that only later could “real” communication take place. The CLT approach accentuates a diametrically opposed philosophy : that genuine communication can take place from the very first day of a language class.

16. Questions to stimulate communication at beginning levels • How are you? • What’s your name? • Where do you live? • How old are you (for children)? • What do you do (for adults)? • Do you have brothers (sisters, children, etc.)? • What are their names?

17. At an intermediate level, students can get involved in a “mixer” in which they go around the room, getting information from, say, four or five other stu dents. At the more advanced levels, a simple question or problem posed by the teacher can lead to sustained, meaningful student communication between student and teacher, in pairs, or in small groups Find someone who:

18. Controlled versus Open-Ended Techniques You may see teacher’s manuals refer to another continuum that compares what appear to be the same concepts: controlled versus open-ended. The difference may be the extent to which the teacher “controls the flow of the discourse . . . and learners simply fill the discursive slots provided” (Kurtz, 2011, p. 137). Open-ended techniques allow teacher and student to “break through the communicative cocoon” (Kurtz, 2011, p. 133) and to improvise in the classroom. As van Lier (2007) noted, “lessons and tasks are planned, but there should always be an element of improvisation . . . in which new and unexpected things happen ” (p. 53).

19. Here are a few generalizations: Controlled T restricts communication T elicits an intended response T emphasizes forms/structure T monitors Ss’ responses Open-Ended Ss are free to improvise Ss’ responses are spontaneous Ss focus on meaning/communication Ss are relatively unmonitored In reality, techniques are rarely as black-and-white as these generalizations would have you believe. For example, many controlled techniques are manipu lative , as described above. But controlled techniques sometimes have commu nicative elements. Or a technique may swing back and forth from controlled elements to more open-ended, which is why it is prudent to think of this con tinuum as various aspects of techniques.

20. Mechanical, Meaningful, and Communicative Techniques In the decades of the 1940s through the 1960s, language pedagogy was obsessed with drills, which occupied a good deal of class time. Current practice makes minimal—or we should say optimal—use of drilling. By definition, a drill is a mechanical technique that focuses on a minimal number of language forms (grammatical or phonological structures) through repetition. Drills can be choral, with the whole class repeating in unison, or individual. And they can take several forms, ranging from simple repetition to various substitution formats. Here are some examples of the latter:

21. T : I went to the store yesterday. Ss : I went to the store yesterday. T: Bank. Ss : I went to the bank yesterday. T: In the morning. Ss : I went to the bank in the morning.

22. Mechanical drills have only one correct response from a student and have no implied connection with reality. What some have called meaningful drills ( Paulston & Bruder , 1976) can add some reality, but may stretch the concept of drill too far: T: The woman is outside. [pointing out the window at a woman] Where is she, Hiro? S1: The woman is outside. T: Right, she’s outside. Keiko, where is she? S2: She’s outside. T: Good, Keiko, she’s outside. Now, class, we are inside. Hiroko, where are we? S3: We are inside.

23. A further extension of meaningful communicative practice is found in form-focused communicative practice that might go something like this, if you were trying to get students to practice the past tense: T : Good morning, class. Last weekend I went to a restaurant and I ate salmon. Juan, what did you do last weekend? Juan: I went to park and I play soccer. T : Juan, you play soccer or you played soccer? Juan: Oh . . . eh . . . I played soccer. T:Good ! Ying, did you go to the park last weekend? Ying: No. T : What did you do? Ying: I went to a movie. T:Great , and what did you do, Fay?

24. This exercise is an attempt to force students to use the past tense, but allows them to choose meaningful replies. Juan chose the safety of the teacher’s pattern, while Ying, perhaps because she was more focused on communicative reality than on past tense formation, initially broke out of the pattern before returning. The previous exercise also illustrates how teachers might control interaction in the classroom, but not be as manipulative as they would be in drill. There are opportunities for students to venture out of a pattern if they wish, which is communicative, but not completely open-ended.

25. A TAXONOMY OF TECHNIQUES A comprehensive taxonomy of common techniques for language teaching, adapted from Crookes and Chaudron (1991), is found in Table 11.1 (pages 226–227). Notice that three broad categories are used: controlled, semi-controlled, and open-ended. Bearing in mind the somewhat slippery concept of control referred to above, you may be able to gain a broad picture, from this taxonomy, of a range of classroom language-teaching techniques. In the chapters that follow, many of these tech niques will be discussed with examples and analysis. In a taxonomy such as this, not only will many techniques be somewhat difficult to categorize in terms of the control continuum, but some techniques will fit into more than one category. Consider the following “warm-up” activity for the first day of an intermediate-level class:

26. TEXTBOOKS Many of your classroom activities involve the use of various forms of materials to support and enhance them. What would language classes be without books, pictures, charts, realia , and technological aids? Yes, you could have conversations, role-plays , discussions, and chalkboard work, but much of the richness of language instruction is derived from supporting materials. Today such materials abound for all levels and purposes. What kinds of materials are available to you? How do you decide what will work and what won’t? Is it worthwhile to create your own materials? If so, what sorts of things can be relatively easily made? We’ll look at these and related questions here as we consider these all-important supporting elements in a lesson.

27. The most obvious and most common form of material support for language instruction comes through textbooks. Most likely, as a relatively new teacher, your first concern will not be to choose a textbook, but rather to find creative use for the textbook that has been handed to you by your supervisor. So, while your textbook may not be “perfect” in your estimation, your challenge is to make the very best use of the one you have: follow the guidelines that have been given in the textbook’s teacher notes, adapt segments of the book to suit your context, and add other materials (see the next section of this chapter) to enhance your lessons.

28. Textbook Adaptation Let’s say you’re preparing for tomorrow’s lesson. If your textbook has teacher’s notes (possibly in a separate teacher’s edition), by all means consult them and use as many of the suggestions as you feel are appropriate. If there are no teacher’s guidelines available, your task is more difficult, but not by any means insurmountable .

29. Let’s say your objectives focus on • vocabulary for food • talking about food you like, and • a message about unhealthy sweet food.

30. Here are just a few of the questions you might ask yourself in the lesson planning stage: • Is Exercise 1 really the best way to begin this lesson? If they know these words, is this just a review? • How will I direct students to perform Exercise 1? After the pairs have finished, what will the “reporting” process be? • Is Exercise 2 too mechanical for my context? • In Exercise 3, should I “teach” the word sweet first? • Exercise 4 seems too complex for my high beginners. Should I just tell them about these two terms and then have a show of hands on those who feel they fall into one category or another? Or maybe at this point, they could take the lists of food in Exercise 3 and talk about what they like and don’t like? • Should I combine Exercises 5 and 6? • Exercise 7 looks like it needs some background setting, and some directions for what students should do while they read—what they should look for in the article as they are reading. Maybe I should follow this with some oral whole-class questions to serve as a comprehension check (rather than Exercise 8)

31. • Instead of Exercise 8, should I consider a “mixer” in which I get stu dents to line themselves up according to how much they like some of the foods listed in Exercise 1? That might wrap up this lesson with a focus on the message that sweet foods aren’t all that healthy . The above questions are issues of textbook adaptation that you face almost every time you plan a lesson. You see to it that the way you present the textbook lesson is appropriately geared for your particular students—their level, ability , and goals—and is just right for the number of minutes in your class.

32. Textbook Selection If your teaching situation allows you to choose a textbook, you have an exciting but complex task ahead of you. In fact, the number of questions that need to be asked about a textbook can be overwhelming. But once you have carried out a thorough investigation of textbooks using some kind of consistent evaluation procedure, you will be rewarded by having chosen a textbook that is an optimal fit for all of your criteria.

33. Criteria for Textbook Selection and Evaluation Program and Course 1. Does the textbook support the goals of the curriculum and program? 2. Is the textbook part of a series, and if so, is it at the appropriate level of your students? 3. Are a sufficient number of the course objectives addressed by the textbook? 4. Is the textbook gauged for learners at the appropriate age group, ability, purpose, and background? 5. Is the textbook attractive and motivating in its design and layout? 6. Is the textbook sensitive to the cultural background(s) of the students?

34. Approach 7. Are the roles of teacher and learners in concert with current knowledge about second lan guage acquisition? 8. Do the sequencing, difficulty levels, pacing, and variety represented in the textbook reflect current knowledge about second language acquisition? 9. Does the approach challenge learners to use and develop their own strategies and to work toward autonomy?

35. Skills 10. Does the textbook account for a variety of learners’ preferences and styles as they develop various skills? 11. Is the “mix” of skills presented in the textbook appropriate for the course? 12. Does the textbook provide learners with adequate guidance as they are acquiring these skills?

36. Techniques and Supplementary Materials 13. Do the techniques in the textbook promote learners’ language development? 14. Is there a balance between controlled and open-ended techniques? 15. Do the techniques reinforce what students have already learned and represent a progres sion from simple to more complex? 16. Are the techniques varied in format so that they will continually motivate and challenge learners? 17. Does the textbook include supplementary photocopy-ready handouts, workbook, work sheets, assessments, audio or video disc, and/or web-based exercises? 18. Is there an accompanying teacher’s guide?

37. Practical Issues 19. Is the textbook available and cost-effective? 20. Can the book be obtained in a timely manner? Is it available as an e-book?