Teaching by Principles

Teaching by Principles H. Douglas Brown

The 12 Principles  Part of every language lesson  Foundation for good, strong pedagogy  Preliminary guides to inform your observations

#1 – Automaticity  Efficient 2nd language learning involves a timely movement of the control of a few language forms into the automatic processing of a relatively unlimited number of language forms.  Automaticity – the road to fluency

#2 – Meaningful Learning  Meaningful learning will lead toward better long-term retention than rote learning.  Appeals to student interests  Connects new info to old info (good schemata building)

Meaningful Learning – Don’ts  Too much grammar explanation  Abstract principles and theories  Too many drills and memories  Activities with unclear purposes  Extraneous activities  Distractions that take the focus off of meaning

#3 – The Anticipation of Reward  Human beings are universally driven to act, or “behave,” by the anticipation of some sort of reward – tangible or intangible, short term or long term – that will ensue as a result of the behavior  Anticipation of Reward  Encourage for confidence, not an Oscar  Encourage students to encourage students  Be excited and enthusiastic!!  It’s a long and winding road – keep an eye on the end rewards – get your students to look there, too

#4 – Intrinsic Motivation Principle  The most powerful rewards are those that are intrinsically motivated within the learner.  What is motivation? o It is the extent to which you make choices about (a) goals to pursue and (b) the effort you will devote to that pursuit  Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic o Intrinsic brings feeling of competence and self-determination o Extrinsic is all about gaining an award or avoiding punishment #5 – Strategic Investment  Successful mastery of the 2nd language will be due to a large extent to a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort, and attention to the 2nd language.  Strategic Investment  Strategic Investment  Multiplicity of learning styles and strategies = multiplicity of techniques  Group and individual; oral, written, bubbles, maps, graphics, etc  Not everyone has to comfortable at every single moment of every lesson, so push people!

#6 – Language Ego  As human beings learn to use a 2nd language, they also develop a new mode of thinking, feeling, and acting – a 2nd identity.  Language Ego – Student TLC  Be supportive because adult learners often feel stupid!  Be challenging but kind in activities  Think about LEs in planning class logistics (who to call on, correct, “volunteer”, how to pair or group etc)

#7 – Self-Confidence  The eventual success that learners attain in a task is at least partially a factor of their belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing the task.  Self- Confidence  Build/sequence activities to build confidence.  Encourage students – let them know that you know they can do the work  You should have it, too!

#8 -- Risk-Taking  Successful language learners, in their realistic appraisal of themselves as vulnerable beings yet capable of accomplishing tasks, must be willing to gamble. o Ashima in The Namesake!  Create an atmosphere in the classroom that encourages students to try out language, venture a response  Provide reasonable challenges  Return students’ risky attempts with positive affirmation

#9 -- The Language-Culture Connection  Whenever you teach a language, you also teach a complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling, and acting.  Discuss cultural differences without being judgmental  Consciously connect culture and language  Don’t be culturally offensive in the class – that’s so easy!  Be ready to discuss your cultural blind spots and assumptions  Pay attention to possible culture shock

#10 – The Native Language Effect  The NL of learners will be a highly significant system on which learners will rely to predict the target language system.  Errors are windows to interlanguage; is it the native language?!?!  Help students to hold onto the helpful aspects of their NL  Stop translation in its tracks! Think in the target language!!!

#11 -- Interlanguage  2nd language learners tend to go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they progress to full competence in the TL.  Distinguish between interlanguage errors and all others  Tolerate interlanguage forms that make sense and show learning  Don’t make the Ss feel stupid  Treat mistakes like an oil dipstick  Encourage self-correction  Don’t let your corrections make students afraid of speaking

#12 -- Communicative Competence  Since CC is the goal of a language class, instruction needs to point toward all of its components: organizational, pragmatic, and psychomotor.  Communicative goals are best achieved by giving due attention to: o language use and not just usage o fluency and not just accuracy o authentic language and contexts o students’ eventual need to apply classroom learning to unrehearsed contexts in the real world.

 Communicative Competence is: . A combo plate of: o Organizational competence = grammatical and discourse o Pragmatic competence = functional and sociolinguistic o Psychomotor skills (pronunciation, intonation)

. Grammar is just one part of a lesson . Functional & sociolinguistic aspects of language are fun, but don’t forget the psychomotor skills . Allow students to become fluent . Be real – in your materials . Help students become independent learners and users of language

Why the 12? o Keep your lessons honest o Keep your lessons about student learning and not teacher entertainment o Provide a form of evaluation that allows you to assess a lesson, adapt it and be ready for a better next-go-round