Daraga Community College

Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

Name: Jaya Marie Mapa Instructor: Mrs. Gilda

Dacillo
Course/Block: III BEED -17 Subject: MC English
101
(# 5) A- Approaches in Language Teaching

1. Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative language teaching (CLT) is also referred to as the
communicative approach, which entails teaching language through
communication. This approach to teaching language frames
communication as both a goal and a method for English language
learners (ELLs) whose first language is not English.
Communicative language teaching prioritizes developing students'
communication and interaction skills. This ensures that students
can communicate effectively and confidently in real-life situations
through student-to-student interaction and student-to-teacher
interaction.
Why is communicative language teaching important?
The main purpose behind communicative language teaching
methods is to prepare students to be confident communicators in
different real-life contexts, through repetitive oral practices and
student-student cooperation.
Features of Communicative Approach
There are various features to the communicative language teaching
approach, including the integration of reading, writing, and speaking.
For example, a teacher may ask students to watch a video and then write a
one to two sentence opinion about the video on the board. Students will then
read each other's opinions and discuss how they felt about what they
watched. This allows for multiple skills to be practiced at once, which is
beneficial to a student's ability to communicate effectively with others.
CLT also uses groups or pairs for activities, which allows for collaboration to
be instilled in the language-learning classroom. Group work or work in pairs
allows for students to discuss, practice, and master material without feeling
isolated in the process of learning a new language. Often times, students
who work together will feel more comfortable practicing fluency over the
mistakes they make in their grammar. This ensures that students are on the
road to becoming fluent in the new language through collaboration, where
students may learn from one another and work together.
The communicative approach uses tools, and technology for a personalized
learning approach as well. Each student learns differently and has different
interests, so through CLT, teachers can make learning more individualized to
best meet the needs of their students. For example, students may enjoy
talking about sports or popular culture, so the teacher may ask students to
discuss those areas with one another through multiple activities, such as
role-playing real-life scenarios, group discussion or pair discussion, among
other various activities that encourage collaboration.
Examples of Communicative Approach Activities in the Classroom
Role-playing is an effective activity that is often used in the CLT
classroom. For example, some students may love shopping, so the
teacher decides that they should discuss their love of shopping
through a role-playing activity. One student will act as the cashier
while the other will act as the customer. Through this role-playing
activity, the two students can have a conversation that one may
often hear between cashiers and customers in real life, such as
being asked how the weather is, how their day is going, what brings
them into the store, and so much more.
Interviews are also a great way to use CLT in the classroom. For
example, students may be put into a group together and asked to
interview each other about their interests, such as what hobby is
their favorite. The teacher may then ask students to relay the
information they learned from each peer by giving a summary of
the other student's favorite hobby and why it is their favorite. This
allows for students to repeat the information they heard but also
work together in an informal, low-stakes manner that does not
make them feel like they are learning on their own.
Group discussions and pair discussions are effective ways to
prioritize student-to-student interaction, which creates a more open
and safer atmosphere. When students are listening to a teacher
give a lecture, they may not retain that information as much as
they would if they were asked to put their skills to practice in a low-
stakes way, such as through group discussion. When students have
their mistakes pointed out, such as grammatical mistakes they
made on a worksheet, they may feel like they alone are not capable
of learning. When put in groups or asked to practice the language
with others, they might see that they are not alone in the process
of learning a new language.
Benefits of Communicative Language Teaching
There are various benefits to CLT, such as it being holistic and
engaging. Students who can discuss their favorite things may
feel more passionate in speaking to others and out loud
instead of speaking about something that is not as engaging to
them. CLT is also a learner-centered approach, in which
activities are focused on and driven by students instead of
teachers.

2. Scaffolding
Scaffolding is an instructional practice where a teacher
gradually removes guidance and support as students learn and
become more competent. Support can be for content,
processes, and learning strategies.
This requires careful planning, initial assessment of students’
prior knowledge and monitoring of growth to determine which
supports are needed and which can be removed. As a student
grows, they begin more difficult challenges that require new
supports that will eventually fade.
The goals of scaffolding are to increase student proficiency and develop
their skills as self-regulated learners. This is achieved by providing an
appropriate amount of instructional support based on student needs and
context complexity. As students grow as learners, scaffolding can be
changed, reduced or removed over time.
Scaffolding can be implemented into your course using a variety of
methods:
Scaffolding Over Time
Scaffolding is a process that should be strategically embedded into both
the design and instruction of your course. In many cases, it follows a
similar progression as shown in the diagram below.
Scaffolding Strategies
A variety of scaffolding strategies can be embedded into the overall course
design or individual lesson plans. Others may occur during synchronous
teaching and learning as opportunities arise. Although these strategies are
categorized, they can be helpful in multiple areas.
Unit and Lesson Planning
Determine students’ background/prior knowledge
Divide instruction into mini-lessons with periodic checkpoints
Logically and meaningfully set up course structure
Provide additional supports, resources and references
Ensure scaffolds are accessible and inclusive
Incorporate technology support
Instructional Practices
Share lesson goals or objectives
Activate and build upon students’ prior knowledge
Model skills and strategies
Use guided instruction and practice
Include multi-modal instruction (audio, visual, multi-media)
Pair or group students for peer collaboration
Share examples and exemplars
Provide steps, processes or procedures
Monitoring Learning
Regularly give feedback and guidance
Use formative assessments to gauge student learning
Provide answer keys or self-checking opportunities
Guide students to take ownership of their learning
Adjust instruction based on assessment results
Learning Activities
Guided practice (peer-peer or peer-expert)
Group work
Collaborative writing
Discussion boards
Open question forums
Prompts and guiding questions
Chunking large assignments into smaller sections
Outlines, guided notes or graphic organizers
Self-checks or reflections
Formative assessments
Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is a way to scaffold instruction by increasing student work

through the following three stages:

SCAFFOLDING MODEL
Instruction – "I do"

 Modeling and thinking aloud is done by the instructor.

Guided practice – "We do"

 Students work together.

 Students and instructor work together.
Independent practice – "You do"

 Students work on their own.

3. Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning involves structuring classes around small groups
that work together in such a way that each group member's success is
dependent on the group's success. There are different kinds of groups
for different situations, but they all balance some key elements that
distinguish cooperative learning from competitive or individualistic
learning.
Cooperative learning can also be contrasted with what it is not.
Cooperation is not having students sit side-by-side at the same table to
talk with each other as they do their individual assignments.
Cooperation is not assigning a report to a group of students where one
student does all the work and the others put their names on the
product as well.
Cooperation involves much more than being physically near other
students, discussing material, helping, or sharing material with other
students. There is a crucial difference between simply putting students
into groups to learn and in structuring cooperative interdependence
among students.

Why Use Cooperative Learning?

Extensive research has compared cooperative learning with traditional
classroom instruction using the same teachers, curriculum, and assessments.
On the average:
 Students who engage in cooperative learning learn significantly more,
remember it longer, and develop better critical-thinking skills than
their counterparts in traditional lecture classes.
Students enjoy cooperative learning more than traditional lecture
classes, so they are more likely to attend classes and finish the course.
Students are going to go on to jobs that require teamwork. Cooperative
learning helps students develop the skills necessary to work on
projects too difficult and complex for any one person to do in a
reasonable amount of time.
Cooperative learning processes prepare students to assess outcomes
linked to accreditation.
Cooperative Learning Techniques
Cooperative learning techniques can be loosely categorized by the skill that
each enhances (Barkley, Cross and Major, 2005), although it is important to
recognize that many cooperative learning exercises can be developed to fit
within multiple categories. Categories include: discussion, reciprocal
teaching, graphic organizers, writing and problem solving. Each category
includes a number of potential structures to guide the development of a
cooperative learning exercise. For example, the category of problem-solving
helps to develop strategic and analytical skills and includes exercises such as
the send-a-problem, three-stay one-stray, structured problem solving, and
analytical teams.