Introduction to English Language Teaching

• learner + institutional characteristics (school system)
• Teacher characteristics:
• a) commitment, subjective theories,
• b) subject knowledge,
• c) pedagogic expertise,
• d) diagnostic expertise (feedback from students, assess the students‘ level, areas of difficulty)
• Classroom management (=Klassenführung)
• Teaching methods and techniques (Marzano, Pickering & Pollock)

teaching of communicative language ability

• Monolingual classroom discourse (exception: instructions for group work to avoid misunderstanding) [DESI], even classroom management
• Habituation (cf. Audiolingual method: repetition is necessary)
• Focus on accuracy and fluency (mistakes as opportunities for learning, corrections are important)
• Focus on form and meaning (imitate real communication outside of the classroom) [DESI: one-year advantage of bilingual teaching]
• Focus on (correct) speech and writing [DESI], both writing and speaking exercises
• Analysis of existing methods and development of new methods for
• a) different language skills (listening, reading, etc.),
• b) components of language system (lexico-grammar, pronunciation),
• c) other issues relating to language teaching (media use, assessment, beginners, error correction, language games)

• Age
• Type of school
• Class size (DESI: small is better)
• School infrastructure
• Negative influences (e.g television and video consumption, lack of interest in the subject matter, excessive amount of material in the curriculum -> teachers complain mainly about pedagogic shortcomings)
• Social background (parental standards + commitment rather than socioeconomic class, linguistic problems of migrants)

• Enthusiasm (Ample use of gestures, varied intonation, constant eye contact, moving around the class, humour, lively examples; Optimize rather than maximize enthusiasm)
• Received knowledge (including Scientific knowledge)
• Experimental knowledge (subjective theories)
• Ability to reflect on professional performance (in the light of received and experiential knowledge)
• Subject-matter knowledge coupled with psychological expertise (how to transmit knowledge to students)
• Pedagogic expertise: (varied) methodology, comprehensibility
• Diagnostic expertise coupled with structured remedial teaching
• —> evidence-based pedagogy: teacher as a doctor who starts by establishing a diagnosis and devises a treatment which achieves the right kind of balance between empirical evidence, experiential knowledge and the case at hand

• Professional training and preparation
• Instructional materials
• Personal library (Textbooks; Unabridged bilingual dictionaries; Learners‘ dictionaries; Grammars of the target language; Popular literature; Authentic materials (postage stamps, banknotes and coins, songs, political announcements, newspapers and magazines, etc.); Professional journals (Der fremdsprachliche Unterricht, Praxis Fremdsprachenunterricht, französisch heute, System) )
• Media use
• Language mastery
• Contacts with English-speaking countries (provide authentic + true examples)

• Identifying similarities and differences: eg.g word order, cultural differences, vocabulary
• Summarising (deleting, substituting, keeping elements – being aware of explicit structure)
• Note-taking (not verbatim,, work in progress, the more notes the better, outline and/or web format)
• Reinforcing effort (exemplify connection between effort and achievement)
• Providing recognition (for successfully completed tasks rather than for simply engaging in activities; abstract rather than tangible)
• Homework (primary school: 30 minutes, years 5-10: 90-120, years 11-12: 120-180; minimal parent involvement; clearly articulated purpose; feedback)
• Practice (24 times for 80 per cent competency; need to adapt and understand the skill; chart accuracy and speed; procedural facilitation) 
• Non-linguistic representations (generating mental pictures; creating graphic representations)
• Cooperative learning (no grouping by ability levels, small groups of 3 to 4, no overuse -> enough time for independent practice)
• Setting objectives (not too specific, personalized)
• Providing feedback (corrective, timely, criterion- referenced) 
• Generating and testing hypotheses (ask students to clearly explain their hypotheses and their conclusions)
• Cues, questions and advance organizers (focus on important information; higher-level, analytic questions; wait time (more than 3 seconds, DESI))

Foreign language (FL) teaching is dependent upon social, economic, political, cultural, and academic interests

• have varied across history
• no linear story of progress in language teaching and learning 

1. the principles of language acquisition and teaching a FL
2. the political decision whether to train practical language skills only or pursue further educational objectives

• Latin as lingua franca: a common language used among speakers not sharing a native language
• everyone had to learn Greek: bilingual education aimed at producing good orators who are able to argue a case and make convincing speeches

• Latin: political and legal documents, formal education, central medium of religious service (Bible)
• Ars minor (Latin grammar book by Aelius Donatus): method of teaching based on the Catechistic method (Catholic standard rule book --> learning by heart)
• Priscian + A. Donatus had a canonical influence on language teaching for ca. 1000 years --≤ static period, teaching of the language system for religious usage (Christian)
• first dictionaries (Alfric)

• Renaissance Humanists favored Greek over Latin
• fundamental literary, political, and philosophical texts to provide a rounded education for a rather small elite (adult aristocrats, merchants, craftsmen, scholars)
• early forms of the direct teaching method: only using the language to be taught
• French as an official government language
• textbooks designed to teach French, based on written language, Latin canon and conversation books with artificial dialogues in rhyme, Catechistic techniqiue
• ca. 1570: first English textbook (indirect method)

• rise of modern language teaching
• Two models of FL teaching and learning

1. FL as a system (grammar)
2. FL for communicative purposes

Early methods:

• Grammar-Translation Method: disconnected and unnatural sentences illustrating specific rules; first presentation of a rule, then sentences in L2 for translation into L1
• Comenius: holistic style of learning
• Locke: extensive monolingual input and practice in the FL (direct method)

• reading selections as the foundation of instruction
• connected sentences to convey a sensible meaning, coherent texts
• arouse interest --> lively, varied examples
• everyday language examples
• idiomatic and normal language
• not merely focus on grammar
• distinction between the ability to speak a language and to translate it
• gradual increase of difficulty

• English as a world language (international trade, seafaring nation, English philosophers, scientific exchange...)
• British Empire (18th/19th centuries)
• global dominance of the USA (20th century)

A blessing and a curse:

• key to empowerment
• killer language
• linguistic and cultural imperialism

Today: English as lingua franca --> dominates popular culture, the Internet, trade, finance, politics, academia 

• Hybrid / heterogeneous world Englishes
• Kachru’s model: Inner, Outer, Expanding Circle
• Standard British English (BE,RP) + standard American English (SAE, GA) enjoy prestige
• mastering standard English forms = cultural, social and economic capital
• English = valuable commodity

How to define common structural, sociolinguistic, and historical-political characteristics in the face of numerous varieties and differences

Features of standard English are often disregarded:

• pronunciation of the phoneme / th/: */dis/
• inflection of verb in 3rd person singular: *he talk
• ‘would’ in if-clauses: *If she would come, I would be there

English gained some ground in German schools

• education of urban middle class
• reading literature and works of philosophy or
• practicing oral communication

• Three-tiered and class-based system :
• Volksschule for common people (grades 1-8)
• Realschule (grades 5-10)
• Gymnasium (grades 5-13) for middle and upper classes

majority of population was not taught any FL

• Gradually, English became second modern FL (next to French in Realschule)
• third or fourth option next to Latin and Greek in Gymnasium
• Grammar-Translation Method
• explicitly teaches vocabulary and grammar
• enable students to read literary and philosophical ‘classics’
• support their general education 

Vietor: Der Sprachunterricht muss umkehren! (1882/1905): called for a new kind of language teaching

- against elitist form of higher education

- FL teaching should concentrate on ...

• functional skills of oral communication
• knowledge about the target country (‘Realienkunde’)

- Advocates Direct or Natural Method

• FL as medium of instruction
• oral skills besides studying authentic texts
• Berlitz schools implemented monolingual, direct method of immersion

Target culture taught in comparison to one’s own culture:

• enhancing awareness of national culture
• construction of stereotypes

Fascists elected English as first FL:

• learning about culture in order to prove superiority of German national culture
• traditional class discrimination in education
• majority of learners in Volksschule had no FL classes

• BRD: English as first FL in all secondary schools 
• DDR: Russian as first FL

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT, Kommunikativer Fremdsprachenunterricht (1970s)

--> Piepho: Kommunikative Kompetenz als übergeordnetes Lernziel im Englischunterricht (1974):

=> shifted priority from teaching knowledge about language (grammar and syntax) to performance in    language (e.g. listening comprehension and speaking)

The Common European Framework (CEF):

• has changed educational standards from focus on content to testable output
• Native-speaker standard replaced by plurilingual speaker-norm
• Early foreign language teaching and learning (Fremdsprachenfrühbeginn)
• Bilingual or Content and Language Integrated Learning (bilingualer Unterricht)
• Digital revolution
• Policy of inclusion 

  --> demise of native-speaker model

  --> learner as social agent

  --> language as (inter-)action

lead to a revision of language teaching and learning for the 21st century

1. Communicative skills in foreign languages
2. Intercultural communicative competence
3. Individual education and emancipation
4. Social skills and values
5. Economic empowerment and mobility
6. Political participation in a democratic and multicultural Europe
7. Learner-centered methods of teaching

1. Declarative knowledge (savoir): knowing what, including socio- and intercultural knowledge
2. Know-how and skills (savoir-faire): including socio- and intercultural know-how
3. Existential competences (savoir-être): personality traits, points of view, attitudes
4. The ability to learn (savoir apprendre): learner strategies, metacognitive awareness, media literacy

• Linguistic competence about language structures and how to use these: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and intonation, spelling
• Reception: listening and reading
• Production: speaking and writing
• Interaction
• Mediation

from A1 (basic user) to B2 (independent user)

Has shifted attention from input of teaching to output of learning + testing of functional competences

Enormous impact:

• on educational policy making (curricula)
• on test design (DESI, VERA)
• on teaching (educational objectives)
• on academic debates (teacher education)

Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) used CEF as framework of national educational standards

e.g. Germany: new national educational standards and more testing

• The Bildungsstandards ignore Bildung in the sense of personal growth, orientation, and reflection
• The narrow focus on functional communicative competences and testing is detrimental to intercultural and methodological goals
• Competence comes with little content as if content was less relevant
• The descriptors and scales of language proficiency are not always clear and distinct
• Average standards (Regelstandards) should be changed to minimum standards (Mindeststandards, for weaker learners) and maximum standards (Maximalstandards, encouraging best performance)
• Standardization jars with individualization and differentiation.
• Output orientation neglects standards of good teaching and the insight into processes of language acquisition and learning
• Output standards encourage teaching to the test (backwash)

• KMK: Educational Studies, Psychology, FL

Deutscher Anglistenverband, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien: English/American studies, TEFL 

Problems: 

-The education of language teachers within the two stages (university education + 1st state examination and traineeship + 2nd state examination) varies across German federal states:

• subjects of academic education
• link to practical teacher training
• education of teachers at primary schools often separated from that of teachers at secondary schools

-In-service teacher training (Lehrerfortbildungen) less systematically structured and implemented than first two stages

-Need to bridge the gap between English/American Studies as an academic subject and its teaching at school

• quantitative conditions (money!)
• quality of schools
• quality of teaching