*Language acquisition:

Acquisition:
- The process by which ppl naturally and gradually develop proficiency in a
language.
- Learners assimilate a language non-consciously/ subconsciously through
exposure to that language rather than by formal instruction, conscious
understanding of rules.
- To acquire, learners need a source of natural communication.
- The emphasis is on the text of the communication (what) and not on the form
(how).
Learning:
- Formally develop language proficiency.
- Learners have conscious knowledge of the new language and can talk abt
that knowledge.
- The emphasis is on the form (how)
- A personal choice
- Limited exposure
- Age limit: puberty and on (palmer)

*Intuitive acquisition: learning another language the same way as learning a

mother’s tongue/ first language, especially in speaking.
*Cognitive process: mastering the rules in a language and then applying them in
different contexts.

LEARNING THEORIES
1. Intuitive Acquisition:
- According to Noam Chomsky: “humans are born with an innate
ability to acquire language, which he termed “Language
Acquisition Device” (LAD)
- We acquire the language intuitively through lots of natural
exposure to language in authentic communicative situations.
(Krashen, 1982)

2. Habit formation (Behavior theory or Behaviorism):

- Language is a set of habits: We mimic, memorize, and drill the
patterns of language until we learn to produce the correct forms
automatically. (B. F. Skinner, 1957)
- “Infants learn oral language from other human role models
through a process involving imitation, rewards, and practice”
(Cooter & Reutzel, 2004).

3. Cognitive process (Cognitivism):

- Learning involves internal processes such as thinking, memory,
problem-solving, and perception.
- Learners, viewed as active participants in their own learning
process, constructing knowledge through experiences.
- The mind is likened to a computer, processing information
through stages: encoding, storage and retrieval. (Jean Piaget)

4. Constructivist learning (Constructivism):

- Learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in
information.
- As ppl experience the world and reflect upon those experiences,
they build their own representations and incorporate new
information into their pre-existing knowledge/ schemas.
- The importance of social interaction in cognitive development.
(Vygotsky, 1987).
- John Dewey: Experiential learning/ education should be grounded
in real-world experiences.
- Discovery learning and the importance of culture in learning
(Jerome…)

5. Skill-learning:
- Language is a skill. We learn it in school as we learn other skills.
- Focuses on the process of acquiring language skills through
practice and repetition.
- Teachers explain the rules or words, learners understand and
practice them until they master them and use them fluently and
skillfully (Johnson, 1996).

6. Connectivist learning (Connectivism):

 - According to Siemens (2005), connectivist learners can share
their ideas with others by using networks.
- Learning is considered as a process of forming networks which
are “connections among various entities such as experts,
database, blogs, and websites.

METHODS:
Audio-lingual:
- Using the Stimulus-Response-Reinforcement model. It attempted
through a continuous process of such positive reinforcement to
engender good habits in language learners.
- Relied heavily on drills to form these habits, substitution was built
into these drills so that students were constantly learning and
were shielded from the possibility of making mistakes by the
design of the drill.
 View of language:
- Everyday speech is emphasized
- Cultural consists of the everyday behavior and lifestyles of the
target language speakers.
 View of language learning:
- Language learning is seen as acquiring a set of habits through
stimulus – response – reinforcement cycles
- Emphasis is placed on repetitive practice and drills to reinforce
correct language patterns and structures.
 Role of the teachers:
- An orchestra leader: directing and controlling ss’ language
behaviors
- A good language model: providing ss with a good model for
imitation
 Role of the students:
- Imitators: following the teacher’s direction and responding as
accurately and as rapidly as possible
 Classroom Practice:
- New vocabs and structures are presented through dialogues
- Grammar is induced/ figured out from the examples given;
explicit grammar rules are not provided
- Dialogues are learned through imitation and repetition
- Students’ successful responses are positively reinforced
- The target language is used exclusively in the classroom to
immerse learners and promote natural language use
- Errors are corrected immediately to prevent the formation of bad
habits.
 Techniques
1. Dialogue Memorization
2. Backward Build-up drills
3. Repetition drills
4. Chain drill
5. Use minimal pairs
6. Complete the dialogue
1.4 Computerized teaching materials:
- Tools and content delivered through digital platforms to enhance
the teaching and learning process
- E-textbook
- C.A.L.L: Computer-Assisted Language Learning
- Social networking tools
- Website
- Multimedia Resources (Videos, podcasts, and animations that can
make learning more engaging and accessible)
- Learning Management System (LMS): e.g. Moodle, Blackboard, and
Google Classroom that facilitate course management, content
delivery, and communication between teachers and students.
- Educational Apps: Mobile applications that offer learning activities,
games and resources for various subjects.
- Blended Learning: Combine computerized materials with face-to-
face instruction for a comprehensive learning experience.

1.5 Motivation
- Motivation is a kind of desire for learning (Nurhidayah, R.,
2020)
- “The reasons underlying behavior” (Guay et al., 2010, p. 712)
 - “Motivation provides the primary impetus to initiate learning
the second language and later the driving force to sustain the
long and often tedious learning process” (Dornyei 1998)

 Intergrative motivation (intrinsic): The desire of learner to learn a

language to integrate into the community of speakers of that
language.
 Instrumental motivation (extrinsic): the need to learn the
language for material or education benefit e.g. to get a job/ to
progress to advanced study. (Gardner, 1991).
WAY TO HELP RAISE STUDENT MOTIVATION
- Showing the students how complex the society is without English
- Offer rewards and compliment
- Providing positive feedbacks
- Set a clear goal
- Let the students know the importance of learning
- Creating a friendly environment
- Teaching students with a sense of humor
- Providing choices
- Encouraging their dreams

 Make things fun

 Provide opportunities for success
 Allow students to work together
 Give learning feedbacks and offer chances to improve
 Harness student interests
 Encourage self-reflection
 Give students responsibility and a sense of control
 Offer varied experiences
 Offer rewards
 Create a threat-free environment
 Be clear about learning objectives
CHAPTER 2: THE LESSON
2.1. Roles of teacher
- Teacher as a planner: prepares and reflects on the lesson before
teaching, aniticipates problems and selects, designs and adapts
materials.
- Teacher as an activator: Provide tasks that activate students – get
students to do something that involves engaging with the forms,
meanings and the uses of the language.
- Teacher as a model: represents the prototype of an English speaker
during a lesson-teacher’s accent, writing and language usages will be
used as immediate model by the students
- Teacher as a feedback provider: provide feedback on student oral or
written production
- Teacher as an assessor: Spend some lesson time assessing students
by grading classroom tests if doing formally. But informally, quick
quizzes or dictations also work
- Teacher as a motivator/ facilitator: Whether the language-learning
process in the course of the lesson is interesting and motivating or
boring and demotivating is largely up to the teacher
- Teacher as a language resource: can be used by the learners for help
and advice about language
- Teacher as rapport builder: tries to create a good relationship with
and between learners
- Teacher as a manager: manage activities by bringing the class
together at the beginning of a lesson, organizing group work, making
sure individual students attend and respond appropriately…
- Teacher as a monitor/ observer: goes around the class during
individual, pair and group work activities, checking learning and
providing support as necessary.

INTERACTION PATTERNS IN THE LESSON

 Imitation

Respons
e

Feedbac
k

- Teacher talk
- Choral responses
- Close-minded teacher questioning
- Open-ended teacher questioning
- Full-class interaction

- Student initiates, teacher answers

- Individual work

- Collaboration

- Group work

- Self-assess
CHAPTER 4: THE TASK
4.1 The Language-Learning Task
- A task = a learner activity
- 2 objectives:
+ Learning aspects of the language
+ Outcome that can be discussed or evaluated
Ex:
A grammar exercise
A problem-solving activity
A writing assignment
An oral or a written test

Task goals: meaning, form and forms

 Meaning: emphasizes understanding and conveying the message or
content. The primary goal is communication, and learners are encouraged
to use language in context to express ideas and comprehend others
 Form: involves paying attention to the linguistic structures within
meaningful communication. While the primary goal is still communication,
there is conscious effort to notice and use correct forms (e.g, grammar,
pronunciation) as part of the interaction
 Forms: emphasizes learning specific linguistic elements in isolation, such
as grammar rules, vocabs, or pronunciation patterns. The primary goal is
accuracy and mastery of these discrete language components, often
through drills and explicit instruction

A GOOD TASK PRODUCES GOOD LEARNING

 Some principles of task design
1. Validity
The task should activate students primarily in the language items or skills it is
meant to teach or practice
 The principle of validity:
- The task involving the language that should be used for some kind of
replication of real-life communication
- Any task e.g pronunciation drill or vocab exercise that can serve primarily to
rehearse and improve the items to be practiced.

2. Quantity
The more English the students engage with during the activity, the more they
are likely to learn
Ex:
Students should repeatedly engage with a particular grammatical form in
different contexts.

3. Success-orientation
- Tasks should be selected, designed and ministered in such a way that
students are likely to succeed in doing them most of the time
- The task should not be too difficult
- The task should require mostly known language

4. Heterogeneity (of demand and level)

- A good task provides opportunities for students to engage with it at all/ most
of levels of proficiency within a class
Ex: Jenny is a baby. I (can/ can’t) ride a bike
 Jenny is a baby. Jenny can smile, but she can’t ride a bike. What else can
Jenny do?

5. Interest
- Easy tasks because of success-orientation
- Repetition of the target forms because of “quantity”
 Make the tasks boring/lead to students’ inattention, low motivation

Factors that make the task interesting

- Relevance
-
- Challenge
- Variety
- Autonomy
 - Feedback
- Social Interaction
- Clear goals
- Fun and play
- Attention-catching materials
- Appeals to students’ feeling

4.3 ORGANIZING TASKS

1. Instructions
 Class attention
- Make sure 100% students listen to you while you are giving instructions.
Failure to do this => doing the tasks wrong/ teacher’s waste of time
consulting/ repeating himself/ herself
- Handouts should not be delivered before giving instructions

 Repetition (or added paraphrase of the instructions)

- Help to present the information again in a different mode
- If it is not too long, both say it and write it up on the board and, or ask
students themselves to recap the main points

 Brevity
- Students’ limited attention span
 Cannot listen to you for very long at maximum concentration
 Make your instructions as brief as you can

 Examples
- Instructions should be illustrated by more than 1 example
- If it is a textbook exercise, do the first one or 2 items with the students
- If it is a communicative task, perform a “rehearsal” with a volunteer student
or 2 to show how it is done

 Checking understanding
- Asking “do you understand?” is not enough
 It’s useful to ask students to do something that will show their
understanding e.g. to paraphrase In their own words, to translate the
instruction into L1. This is an extra repetition for those who missed
something earlier
INTRUCTIONS SHOULD BE MADE CLEAR:
Rule 1: getting everybody’s attention before giving instructions
Rule 2: giving instructions before handouts
Rule 3: setting time for instruction
Rule 4: grade your language (KISS – Keep It Short and Simple)
Rule 5: giving a demonstration or an example (with strong learners)
Rule 6: use visual or written clues (real objects/ pictures/ gestures/ facial
expressions/ mime/ written instructions on the board)
Rule 7 : Break the instruction down
Rule 8: Check their understanding with ICQs (instruction checking questions)
Bad: “Do you understand?” => not helpful as students may say YES even though
they don’t understand your instructions
 Tell me what you have to do/ you are going to do? (ICQ)
Bad: “you have to write 3 sentences”
 How many sentences do you have to write? (ICQ)
Rule 9: finding good position to give instruction
Rule 10: consider using L1

Before giving instructions:

- Plan carefully what you want the students to do
- Keep your instructions as simple and clear as possible
- Make your instructions logical
- Have students’ full attention

While giving instructions:

- Speak loudly enough and don’t speak too fast
- Break down the instructions if it is too long
- Present the information more than once
- Use body language or gestures if possible
- Use visual or written clues
- Illustrate your instructions with examples or demonstrations

After giving instructions:

 - Check whether the students understand the instructions
- Provide further explanation if something is not satisfactory
- Signal to start

4 things need to be known by students

- Why do we do this activity (purpose)?
- What are we supposed to do (content/ topic)?
- Who are we going to work with (partner(s))?
- How much time are we allotted (duration of time)?

ONGOING SUPPORT:
- Always be there for the students
- Be available to answer the questions
- Provide help where needed

FEEDBACK:
- Showing appreciation fir the results

PRACTICAL TIPS:
- Give instructions before materials
- Tell how and when the task will end
- Give advance warning when to stop
- Have a reserve activity ready

4.5. HOMEWORK
Is not only a way to provide extra opportunities for language study outside the
lesson, but also an investment in the future, in that it fosters students’ ability to
work on their own as autonomous learners and to progress independently of the
teacher.

TYPES OF HOMEWORK:
- Routine review
- Previews and preparation
- Creative assignments
- Preparing presentations
- Projects
Giving feedback on homework tasks
- Go through the homework
- Check homework at home
- Use electronic communication

Practical tips:
- Take time to explain
- Say why
- Make homework a component of the grade
- Limit homework by time rather than quality
- Provide extras
- Don’t worry too much abt students copying from one another

TEACHER QUESTIONING
1. Purposes of teacher questions
- To provide a model for language or thinking
- To find out something from students (e.g., facts, ideas, opinions)
- To check or test understanding, knowledge and skill
- To get students to be active in their learning
- To direct attention, or to provide a “warm-up”, to the topic which is about to
be studied
- To inform the class through students answers rather than through the
teacher’s input
- To provide weaker students with an opportunity to participate
- To stimulate thinking (logical, critical or imaginative)
- To probe more deeply into issues
- To get students to relate personally to an issue
- To get students to review and practice previously-taught material
- To encourage self-expression

TYPES OF QUESTIONS
- “Genuine” questions are authentic communication
- “Display” questions are used to simply check if students know the answer/
get students to demonstrate what they know
- Referential questions are used to ask students because you don’t know their
answers
 a. Length of expected response
- Questions requiring long answers are better as they create more student
activation and lead to better learning
- Those requiring for short answers aim to find out if a student has understood
or not

b. Number of expected responses

- Close-ended questions usually have short responses and are useful for quick
check of knowledge or comprehension, or for testing
- Open-ended questions require multiple responses => Good for situations
where you want to get lots of practice of a particular language point, or of
fluent speech or writing; lead to more students activation; & elicit more
interesting responses.

c. Level of thinking required

- Lower-order thinking is simply recall or basic factual information
- Higher-order thinking involves deeper understanding, application, analysis,
criticism, evaluation

WHAT IS EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING

- Effective questioning techniques is one that elicits immediate, motivated,
relevant and full responses
- Questioning resulting in long silences/ answered by the strongest students
=> obviously bore the class & have a problem that need to be solved
CHECKLIST FOR EFFECTIVE QUESTIONING
- Clarity: Do the students immediately understand not only what the question
means, but also what kind of an answer is require? Often it can help a lot if
the teacher provides a sample acceptable answer or two first to give a model
- Interest: Do the students find the question interesting, challenging,
stimulating?
- Accessibility: Can most of the students at least try to answer it, or only the
more advanced, confident and knowledgeable ones?
- Level of answer: Are the answers demanded within the level of the students,
both cognitively and linguistically
- Learning value: Does the question lead to, or effectively check, learning?
- Teacher reaction: Are the students sure that the feedback to their responses
will be respectful, that they will not be put down or ridiculed if they say
something inappropriate

QUESTIONING STRATEGIES:
 - Teacher asks questions and students call out answers
+ Effective for simple questions
+ Likely to be too noisy and uncontrolled
- Teacher asks a question and chooses one student to answer
+ The class involved but still under control
+ Give a chance to weaker + more confident students

- Teacher chooses a student and asks question

+ Highly controlled
+ Not a good way of keeping the attention of the class

- Teacher asks a question and students raise their hand

+ Bright students
+ Volunteering answers

GROUP AND PAIR WORK

PAIR WORK GROUPWORK

 Easier to organize as SS are  More difficult to organize as it
usually sitting in pairs and involves moving SS, chairs
turning towards each other and desks
 Appropriate for shorter  More difficult to control with
collaborative tasks e.g., an undisciplined class; some
comparing answers to an ss sit with their backs to the
exercise teachers => less ready to pay
attention to the teacher
 More SS can contribute ideas
to a discussion task

GROUP WORK:
Advantages:
- Learner autonomy (not directy controlled by the teacher, make their own
choices about how they do the group/ pair tasks)
- Learner motivation
- Collaborative tasks/ activities (students’ contribution to tasks)
- Chance for practicing oral fluency
- More speaking time for learners
Disadvantages:
- Losing control (particularly with young or adolescent group in school)
 - Using 1st language too much
- Making a lot of noise; You are not able to listen to everyone at once and hear
what they are saying
- Students’ preference of teacer-led classroom
- Not suit some students’ learning style (groupwork vs individual work)

ACTIVITIES WHICH LEND THEMSELVES TO GROUP WORK

 Oral/ Written story telling
 Debating/ Discussion
 Poster making
 Mindmap
 Games
 Projects
 Ice-breakers
 Reflecting
 Evaluation/ Assessment, etc.

ORGANZING PAIRWORK AND GROUPWORK:

Creating pairwork and group work:
 Friendship
 Chance
 The task
 Gender and status
 Streaming

ELICITING
a. Purpose
- To assess what students already know
- To engage students in the learning process
- To build on prior knowledge and connect it to new concepts
b. Methods
- Questions: Ask open-ended questions to stimulate thinking and discussion
- Prompt: Use visual aids, gestures, or partial sentences to guide responses
- Scenarios: Present real-life situations or problems for students to solve
- Brainstorming: Encourage students to generate ideas collectively
c. Value
- Active learning: Students are more engaged and involved
- Critical Thinking: Promotes deeper understanding and analysis
- Encourage ss to draw on what they already know
- Adapt the presentation to the level of the class
- Feedback: Provide immediate insight into students’ comprehension levels
 d. Ways of eliciting
- Getting students to guess:
 Questions about things that are quite clear
 Single correct answer
 For key vocabulary/ structures or a situation or topic
- Getting students to imagine:
 Questions to interpret or to imagine
 No single right answers
 Students’ own ideas and feelings
 Stimulate freer use of language
Examples:
 Instead of telling students the past tense of “buy”, ask “What is the past
tense of ‘buy’?” and guide them with hints if needed
 Show a picture of a fast-food restaurant and ask, “What do we call this
place where we eat burgers and fries?”

OPPORTUNITIES TO USE ENGLISH IN CLASS

a. “Social” language:
- At the beginning of a lesson
- Chatting to the class
Ex: What did you do yesterday?
Did you go out?
b. “Organizing language:
- To organize the lesson
- Commands and instructions
Ex: Open/ Close your books!
Do exercise 6 for homework, please.

CHAPTER 6: ERROR CORRECTION

ATTITUDES TO ERROR CORRECTION

MISTAKE
Errors
Occur when learners try to say st that is beyond their current level of knowledge or
language processing.
Slips
are the result of tiredness, worry, or other temporary emotions or circumstances.

TWO MAIN REASONS WHY L2

LEARNERS MAKE ERRORS
Interference or transfer error
Influence from learner’s L1 on the L2

Developmental error (unconsciously working out, organizing,

experimenting whith the language they have learned, but this process is not yet
complete) as the result of overgeneralization (qui chup)
e.g. using past tense for the present perfect tense

Fossilized errors
Are those which a learner does not stop making and which last for a long time, even
forever, in his/her foreign language use
Caused by
- Lack of exposure to the L2
- A learner’s conscious and unconscious lack of of motivation to improve their
level of accuracy
- Errors cause no problems in communication.

Think abt these teacher’s comments. Which do you agree with and why?
1.