PRINCIPLE OF  ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING & LEARNING PROCESS

·         Improves thinking and language through communicating learning;

·         Improves communicative capability and acute knowledge;

·         Draws on literature in order to improve students' understanding of their literary tradition;

·         Draws on informational writings and multimedia in order to build academic vocabulary and strong content knowledge;

·         Develops students' oral language and literacy through suitably puzzling learning;

·         Real language ability means that the person concerned knows the five basic language skills; viz. observation, listening, speaking, reading and writing. He can understand spoken English and can express himself in English, which is he can converse in English. He can read books in English and can express himself in writing in English. It is not important that he has a large vocabulary because the enrichment of vocabulary is a matter of experience. 

·         The following are the important principles of language learning and teaching:-

       I.            Importance of habit formation of English book reading:

·         Learning a language is an art and not a science. The basic of art is practice; the basis of science is knowledge. An art like dancing and painting can’t be required without constant practice. The same is true of language learning.

·         We know that a child learns his mother tongue through repetition and practice. The second or the foreign language has to be learnt in the same manner. As Palmer says, “language learning is essentially a habit forming process, a process during which we acquire new habits.”

   II.            Importance of oral work English language:

·         Modern techniques of teaching language emphasize the importance of oral work. It because of the following.

1.       When a person learns his mother tongue, he masters speech first. It is at the age of four or five years that he begins to learn reading. Likewise, in learning a second language, a pupil should start with speech, and then learn reading and writing.

2.       Language is primarily a spoken thing, the written representation is secondary. Even the illiterate people know their language although they can’t read and write.

3.       There are certain languages in the world which exist only in the spoken form and not in the written form. In the long history of mankind writing appears to be a matter of yesterday.

4.       Oral practice is the quickest way of getting started because the pupil has simply to imitate the utterances of others. The learner gets a sense of achievement which is an incentive for further progress.

5.       To be able to speak a language makes that language more living and real to the pupils and lends rhythm to it.

6.       Whatever the child learns through speech, he retains it longer in the memory. As Hag bout says, “The voice can hardly be over-estimated as an in learning a foreign ………. Sentences words you have heard pronounced repeatedly by your own voice are always retained longer than that you have heard only in the inner articulation.”

7.       Two of our aims of teaching English are to enable the pupil to understand English when spoken and to enable him to speak English. These aims can be fulfilled only if due importance is given to oral work.

8.       Oral work provides the most economical way of learning a language.

·         Implication of above mention principle for the teacher of English is that a lot of oral work by way of drill, dialogues etc. should be done in the class. Students must be provided opportunities to speak the language.

III.            Situational approach to English language teaching:

·         A child learns his mother tongue in situations. Likewise he should learn English language too in situations; the teacher should create appropriate situations to teach the English language. For example, while teaching certain words like box, watch, mango, etc. the teacher may show the objects to the students. He may draw match-stick figures on writing board to how certain items like bucket, basket, bird, etc.

·         The teacher may perform certain actions like walking, jumping, shutting the door, etc. to teach these verbs.

 IV.            Selection and gradation of English language material:

·         We can’t teach the entire system of language whatever the number of years devoted to it’s study. This necessities the importance of selection and gradation of language material that is, vocabulary and structure. The important principles for the selection of vocabulary and structure are frequency, usefulness; teach ability, simplicity, availability, etc.

     V.            Follow Natural process to learn English language:

·         We should follow the natural process to learn English language, likewise how the child learns his mother tongue. We should first provide practice to the pupils in listening and speaking.

·         We should remember that the child is not made to read anything that he has not mastered orally. Nor should he be made to write anything that he has not mastered in reading.

 VI.            Follow the multi-skill approach to learn and teach English language:

·         English language learning consists in mastering the five basic skills, viz. observation, listening, speaking, reading and writing.

·         In fact, the emphasis to be given to those skills will vary from class to class. In the first three years, more stress should be laid on listening and speaking. Later on reading and writing will receive more attention.

·         Thompson and Wyatt have suggested the following rules to coordinate the different types of work in English language teaching:-

1.       Practice in hearing should precede and provide matter for practice in speaking.

2.       Speaking should precede matter for writing.

3.       Speaking should precede reading in the sense that the student’s first attempts at reading should be confined to language and matter that has already been spoken.

4.       At a later stage reading may provide both language and matter for practice in conversation and continuous speaking and this again for written exercises.

5.       Such grammatical teaching as is serviceable should draw its material from language already familiar to the studentwhether in his reading or his work in composition.

VII.            Teaching basic sentence patterns:

·         Since sentence is the unit of thought, the teacher should start with sentence and not words. The basic sentence patterns should be intensively drilled. The students should be taught correct pronunciation and intonation fright from the very begging. If these aspects are neglected at the early stage, it becomes very difficult to get rid of the wrong habits and to cultivate the right ones later on.

VIII.            Make use of the pupil’s knowledge of the mother tongue:

·         The use of mother –tongue in an English classroom should not be taboo, but the students’ knowledge of the mother-tongue should be put to good use. For example, mother-tongue can be profitably used to give instructions to beginners, to explain meanings of certain words like abstract nouns, to test comprehension at the early stage, to teach grammar and to tell the distinction between mother tongue and English sounds.

 IX.            Make lesson interesting:

·         Student will definitely learn English if they find the lesson interesting and attractive. The teacher hasn’t only to arouse the interest of the student, but he has also to maintain it. This can be done number of ways. He should prepare his lessons thoroughly and think of the numerous ways of making them interesting. The teacher must use a starting point already in the pupil’s mind.

    X.            Behavior of teacher should be sympathetic:

·         The teacher’s attitude towards the pupil should be sympathetic.

 XI.            Don’t use unfriendly censure or an unfair remark:

·         Teacher shouldn’t depress the students by an unfriendly censure or unfair remarks. Teacher should involve the student fully in the lesson.

XII.            Variety activities in the lesson:

·         Variety in the lesson makes it interesting. The students shouldn’t be required to do one kind of activity throughout the period, e.g. drills. This will make the work monotonous. Change of activity makes the lesson interesting.

XIII.            Use of Resource Materials for the teaching English:

·         The concentration is on a variety of strategies which should assist a thoughtful and active approach to developing realizing skills and increased language awareness.

·         These Resource Materials for the teaching of language are projected to enhancement and mature the ideas as well as articles, videos, publications and courses to help and approaches sketched in the Teacher Strategies. Their purpose is to suggest generic strategies to teachers who can then select, adapt and apply them to their own situation as they see fit. The materials can be photocopied as required.