Teaching by Principles- Brown

5) Classes operate more successfully by encouraging intrinsic motivation.
I think teenagers (which is the age I teach) feel that knowing English is going to be useful for their future. They are learning because they know that knowing a second language is an important tool. I think that when they are intrinsically motivated they have a better attitude towards learning the language. As a teacher we should motivate our students to feel interested on the knew knowledge they will acquire.

6) With new language learners, teachers need to be gentle and empathetic.
I consider the teacher´s personality a key factor when being in contact with students. In my experience, last year I had an awful experience becuase I didn´t know how to set a limit between them and me. Being gentle and empathetic doesn´t mean that you don´t have to be demanding or strict. Teenagers know that there ´re certain teachers that are more relaxed or less demanding, and they know they can do whatever they want with them. A good teacher, in my opinion, is the one that is gentle, nice, patient, but also that teaches respect and makes students give their best.

8) The language classroom should have plenty of meaningful learning.
Meaningful learning is the one that is going to last for life. If they give a meaning to language, or what students learn makes sense, that information will stay forever with them, and they will know how to apply it in daily experiences.

13) A communicative class should give special attention to fluency / accuracy.
I think this is the neverending debate. My classes are more focused on fluency. I don´t overcorrect studetns when they are talking as that can be tedious and even humiliating for them. But when they are answering a grammar test, of course I focus on accuracy as that what is being evaluated. Sometimes students don´t focus on grammar skills, so their message is affected.

Summary of Different Approaches

The Audiolingual Method (1940s) consisted in repeating drills in the target language, with almost none grammatical explanation. The idea was that the language was not explained, only taught. Teachers had to communicate in the target language making special emphasis in pronunciation.

In the 70s other methods appeared. For example, the Community Language Learning (CLL) said that the class should be treated as a group; therefore, students and teacher interact with one another in order to facilitate the learning process. The teacher´s presence is essential as he/she is the one in charge of building a relationship amongst the students, their needs, etc. The students will say an utterance in his/her native language, and the teacher must translate it into the target language. The group will always be supported by the counselor (teacher) who will help them to cope with frustration or anxiety.

In the late 70s, Suggestopedia appeared. It postulated that if you are in a relaxed and open position, the brain will receive much information. For this, relaxation is essential; therefore, music plays a central role. The teacher has all the authority as he is the one that provides all the input by reading different passages, and students merely repeat and try to memorize.

The Silent way is another method used to teach a second language. Students were shown different rods in order for them to learn colors, numbers, sizes, etc. The teacher is silent and only shows the students the rods.

Total Physical Response (TPR) was developed in 1977. The premise for this method is that children spend two years without pronouncing a word, and then they start speaking. At the same time, on their first years, children only respond to stimuli in a physical way. So, the idea is that the teacher mentions a command, and students have to act it. The problem with this method is that it seems to be effective only in a beginner’s level.

The Natural Approach was postulated by Stephen Krashen in the mid 80s. The essential element of this approach is the “comprehensible input” provided by the teacher. The goal is that students are able to communicate in everyday situations.

These methods use different methodologies in order to reach the desired goal that is the command of a second Language. As the author of the text says “your responsibility as a teacher is to choose the best of what others have experimented with and adapt those insights to your own situation” (p.66)

Psychological Approach: Audiolingualism and Cognitive Code

The Psychological Approaches are called this way because they start from psychological learning theories. In this post I will focus on two methods: Audiolingualism and Cognitive Code Method.

Audiolingualism appeared in 1940 -1950 as a response to more traditional teaching methods. It has been associated with Behaviorism (Skinner) in the sense that in both the consequences of the stimuli are more important than the stimuli itself. Now, in the classroom Audiolingualism was carried out by focusing on certain principles, amongst others:
1) Writing is not as important as Speech.
2) Language is composed by habits and routines.
3) The emphasis is given on the language itself, not in the knowledge about the language.

These priniciples follow the idea of L1 language acquisition. For this, we want to teach L2, we have to follow the same steps that the acquisition of L1 follow. This means, that repetition of the target language is essential in the classroom, and that the input should always be delivered in the target language.

Audiolingualism was critisized because some aspects of the language are not  the result of mere repetition.

The Cognitive-Code Learning was proposed by Chomsky, and it views the "the learning process as two-way process between the organism and its environment." (Nunan, 2009). The learner is not passive; on the contrary, he is able to interact with the environment. An exmaple of this is that he is given a limited set of rules, and the learner can use his creativity to create an infinite number of sentences. The learner is motivated to discover the rule underlying a structure and to reflect on the knowledge about the language.
It is important to point out that prior knowledge is essential when learning something new as the former must be linked with the latter.

Learning a language is like doing sports: the more you practise, the better you are in that sport. When dealing with a second language, the only way of learning it (or in case you have acquired it, to keep it) is by practising it. 
For the same reason, I consider that my strongest skill is listening. I think I can listen quite well to the news or a movie. It takes some time to get used to the language, context, etc, but after a couple of minutes, I can understand what others are saying. Now, I don´t have a native-like listening skill. I mean, I still have to concentrate to get what people are saying. 
On the other hand,  I speak in English with my students everyday. The problem is that as I don´t have contact with native speakers, I don´t have the chance to improve my vocabulary or pronunciation. I could improve my speaking a lot more, and unfortunately I think that our speaking ability is the first skill that people focus on to get how well you know a language.


I would say that my weakest skill is writing. It is the one I practise the least, and I think it is also the one you have less strategies that can compensate your lack of production. Besides, I don´t  get to write that much. The only kind of writing I do are instructions to tasks or tests. 


As I mentioned before, I think the only way of improving this weak skill is by practising, by writing more, by using compensatory strategies that can help me overcome it. 

My learning experience

I was lucky because my mother is also an English teacher. Also, when I was a child I went to an English school till 3rd grade. When I got into 4rd grade in another school, the English was not that good. It's not that the teachers were bad, but that the focus of the classes was uninteresting. What I remember is that classes were only grammar. At the same time, I think that the oral aspect of the language waz always lacking because we were not obliged to talk in English or to communicate in this language. At the same time, we were evaluated in skills we were never taught if. The reading skill was also poor. The novels we read were always the abridged version; therefore, we could not
enrich ourselves with literature.
I think my strength as a language learner is the motivation and the "listening ability". I consider that I have certain skill to get pronunciation. My weakness as a learner is my bad memory whicj is reflected in the difficult time I have whwb learning new vocabulary words. At the same time, I think I'm not the 'risk-taking' type of person. I prefer
using structures and words that I know are well used than using elements I'm not sure of.