Scribd
Upload
19 views

TESOL

Uploaded by

Hecaté S
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
19 views

TESOL

Uploaded by

Hecaté S
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/323384656

Comprehension Approach

Chapter · January 2018


DOI: 10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0599

CITATION READS
1 2,253

1 author:

Mariusz Marczak
Jagiellonian University in Kraków Poland
57 PUBLICATIONS 178 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Mariusz Marczak on 24 February 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.


The full article (online version) is available at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0599/abstract

DOI: 10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0599

Please cite printed version as: Marczak, M. 2018. “Comprehension Approach.” In: Liontas, J.I.
(ed.). The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell,
pp. 1304–1310.

Comprehension Approach

Abstract

The comprehension approach to foreign language instruction emerged in the 1970s and
constituted an alternative to the dominant language-teaching paradigm of that time, which
prioritized performance over reception. Based on the assumption that receptive skills, listening
comprehension in particular, provided a foundation for the development of productive skills, the
approach placed emphasis on intensive exposure to the target language and the resultant
understanding, while also advocating that production be delayed until learners would feel ready
for it. Thus it would create a nonthreatening setting where learners would not be coerced to
speak prematurely and make errors in public but could engage instead in implicit learning,
whereby they would discover target language rules on their own. This entry outlines the
historical backdrop of the rise of the comprehension approach, provides an outline of its most
important tenets, and reviews a number of practical implementations of the approach as well as
of the effects observed.

Keywords:

 approaches and methods in English for speakers of other languages; extensive listening;
 intensive listening; language-teaching methods; natural approach; second language
acquisition; teaching methods in applied linguistics; total physical response; vocabulary

View publication stats

You might also like