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DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES: Techniques and Materials

Indawan Syahri

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TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS

Principled Teaching

Contexts of Learning

Designing & Implementing Techniques in Classroom

How learners

learn

How teachers can best facilitate

leaning process

Dynamic approach

How old are the

learners?

How proficient are they?

What are their

goals?

What are the effects of

sociopolitical factors

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TECHNIQUES REDIFINED

1. TASK– Task refers to a specialized form of

technique or a series of techniques, closely allied with communicative curricula.

– Task-based learning is not a new method, it simply puts task at the center of one’s methodological focus.

– It views that the learning process as a set of communicative tasks that are directly link to the curricular goals they serve, and the purposes of which extend beyond the practice of language for its own sake.

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Task-based Learning

Task-based learning is a perspective that you can take within a CLT in terms of a number of important pedagogical purposes:– Do they ultimately point learners beyond the forms of

language alone to real-world contexts?– Do they specially contribute to communicative goals?– Are there elements carefully designed and not simply

haphazardly or idiosyncratically thrown together?– Are their objectives well specified so that you can at

some later point accurately determine the success of one technique over another?

– Do they engage learners in some form of genuine problem-solving activity?

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2. ACTIVITY

• An activity may refer to virtually anything that learners actually do in the classroom

• 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.

• What are done by teachers are called techniques.

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3. PROCEDURE

• Procedures refer to the actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that operate in teaching a language according to particular method.

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4. TECHNIQUE

• Technique as a superordinate term refers to various activities that either teachers or learners performs in the classroom.

• Techniques include all tasks and activities.• Techniques are almost always planned and

deliberate.• Techniques are the product of choice made

by the teacher.

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Categorizing Techniques (1)

1. From manipulation to communication– Techniques can be thought of as a

continuum of possibilities between highly manipulative and very communicative in their natures

Highly manipulative

Very communicative

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Categorizing Techniques (2)

2. Controlled to free techniquesControlled FreeTeacher-centered Student-centeredManipulative CommunicativeStructured Open-endedPredicted student responses Unpredicted responsesPre-planned objectives Negotiated objectivesSet curriculum Cooperative curriculum

Also see pp. 142-143

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Categorizing Techniques (3)

3. Drills (mechanical, meaningful, and communicative drills)– A drill may be defined as a technique that focuses on a

minimal number (usually one or two) of language forms (grammatical or phonological structures) through some types of repetition.

– Drills are commonly done chorally (the whole class repeating in unison) or individually.

– Drills can take the forms of simple repetition drills, substitution drills, moving slot substitution drills.

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Types of Drills (1)

1. Mechanical drills– Mechanical drills have only one correct response from a

student, and have no implied connection with reality.– E.g., repetition drills simply require that the students repeat a

word or phrase whether the students understand it or not.T: The cat is in the hat.

Ss: The cat is in the hat.

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Types of Drills (2)• Substitution drills

T: I went to the store yesterday. Ss: I went to the store yesterday.T: BankSs: I went to the bank yesterday. T: the hospitalSs: I went to the hospital yesterday

• Slot substitution drillsT: I went to the store yesterday.Ss: I went to the store yesterdayT: BankSs: I went to the bank yesterdayT: HeSs: He went to the bank yesterday

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Types of Drills (3)

2. A meaningful drill may have a predicted response or a limited set of possible responses, but it is connected to some form of reality.

T: The woman is outside. [pointing out the window at a woman]

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.

Horoko, where are we?S3: We are inside.

3. A communicative drill is oxymoron. If the exercise is communicative, i.e., to offer the student the possibility of an open response and negotiation of meaning, then it is surely no longer a drill, so the so-called quasi-communicative practices.

T: Good morning, class. Yesterday, I went to market to buy stationeries. Mary what did you do yesterday?

Mary: I went to see my friend in hospital.

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Continuum Lines

Highly manipulative

Very communicative

Controlled techniques

Free techniqueSemi-controlled techniques

Mechanical drill

Meaningful drills

Quasi-communicative practices

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Thank you