Methods and Materials

Methods and Materials: the importance of ‘difference’ in ELT-towards a critical pedagogy by Fiona English (2003)


New Words
-Their findings have been widely disseminated.
-He was eulogized as a hero.
-The two companies consolidated for greater efficiency.
-He could not reconcile himself to the prospect of losing her.
-You’ll have to go to the police station to reclaim your wallet.
-The job encompasses a wide range of responsibilities.
-Designs are available in a myriad of colours.
-In the exhibition, abstract paintings are juxtaposed with shocking photographs.

My Idea
The article is dealing with some teaching methods. I agree as well as disagree in parts. First, I think it is a good contextualizing activity to show pictures which match the reading text and give the narrative after introducing new or important vocabularies. This activity may be effective for guessing the content of the text. Next, I have to be careful of what ‘speaking’ is. ‘Speaking’ is an oral interaction, not repetition, imitation and drilling. Next, memorizing the text is useful at some extent, especially for beginners, though it is boring. It probably leads to the development of language awareness and monitoring because students learn sentence structures, phrases and pronunciation through memorizing.