1. TEFLTEFL
METHODOLOGY
Elih Sutisna Yanto
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Unsika, West-Java, Indonesia
elihsutisnayanto@gmail.com
METHODOLOGY
Elih Sutisna Yanto
ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Unsika, West-Java, Indonesia
elihsutisnayanto@gmail.com

2. The Purpose of these Slides
1. To define methodology.
2. To explain how methodology is related to
curriculum development and syllabus
design.
3. To describe the “methods” debate.
4. To explain the basic principles of
communicative language teaching, and
describe its current importance in language
teaching pedagogy.

3. 1. What is Methodology?
 Language Curriculum Development is
concerned with
 Principle and procedures for the planning,
delivery, management and assessment of
teaching and learning.
 Curriculum development processes in
language teaching comprise need analysis,
goal setting, syllabus design, methodology,
and testing and evaluation.

4. Three main subcomponents of Curriculum
 Curriculum has three main subcomponents:
Syllabus design, methodology, and evaluation.
 Syllabus design has to do with selecting,
sequencing, and justifying content.
 Methodology has to do with selecting,
sequencing, and justifying learning tasks and
experiences.
 Evaluation has to do with how well students
have mastered the objectives of the course
and how effectively the course has met their
needs.

5. Figure of subcomponents of a curriculum
Curriculum
component
Focus Defining questions
Syllabus design Content • What content should we teach?
• In what order should we teach
this content?
• What is the justification for
selecting this content?
Methodology Classroom
techniques and
procedures
• What exercise, tasks, and
activities should we use in the
classroom?
• How should we sequence and
integrate these?
Evaluation Learning
outcomes
• How well have our students
done?
• How well has our program served
our students needs?

6. The Terms of Curriculum, course, and Syllabus
 Curriculum is the totality of an
organized learning experience; it
provides the conceptual structure and a
set time frame to acquire a recognizable
degree, and describe its overall content,
e.g. the curriculum of a five- year
degree programme in “Mechanical
Engineering: at a certain higher
education institution. (Maya & Todor
2003:60)

7. The Terms of Curriculum, course, and Syllabus
 Course is the totality of an
organized learning experience in
a precisely defined area, e.g. the
course of “Fluid Dynamics”
within the curriculum
“Mechanical Engineering”.
(Maya & Todor 2003:60)

8. The Terms of Curriculum, course, and Syllabus
 Syllabus is the prescription of
details on a specific course, such
as what will be learn (and when)
the texts to be read, the areas in
which expertise is expected to
be demonstrated. (Maya &
Todor 2003:60)

9. The Terms of Curriculum, course, and Syllabus
In conclusion
Curriculum is a very general concept
which involves considerations of the
whole complex of philosophical, social
and administrative factors which
contribute to the planning of an
educational programme; syllabus, on the
other hand, referes to that subpart of
curriculum which is concerned with a
specification of what units will be taught.
(J.P.B. Allen )

10. Types of Syllabuses in Current English as ESL
1. Structural (organized primarily around grammar and
sentence patterns)
2. Functional (organized around communicative functions,
such as identifying, reporting, correcting, describing)
3. Notional (organized around conceptual categories, such as
duration, quantity, location)
4. Topical (organized around themes or topics, such as health,
food, clothing)
5. Situational (organized around speech settings and the
transactions associated with them, such as shopping, at the
bank, at the supermarket)
6. Skills (organized around skills, such as listening for gist,
listening for specific information, listening for inferences)
7. Task or activity-based (organized around activities, such as
drawing maps, following directions, following instructions)
(Jack C. Richards 1995:9)

11. Six types of language syllabus (Reily 1988)
1 A structural syllabus. The content of the language teaching is a collection of the forms and
structures of the language being taught. Examples include nouns, verbs, adjectives,
statements, questions, subordinate clauses, and so on.
2 A notional/functional syllabus. The content of the language teaching is a collection of the
functions or the notions that are performed when the language is used. A notional syllabus
may cover functions of the language such as greeting, apologizing, requesting and informing,
and it may include the notions of language such as age, color, comparison and time.
3 A situational syllabus. The content of the language teaching is a collection of imaginary
situations where the language is used. A situational syllabus may include at a restaurant , at
school, meeting a new neighbor and seeding a doctor.
4 A skill-based syllabus. The content of the language teaching is a collection of specific skills in
using the target language. Examples of skills in using the target language may include reading
for the main idea, writing good paragraphs, and listening for main idea.
5 A task-based syllabus. The content of the language teaching includes a series of purposeful
tasks that language learners need to perform; tasks are defined as activities that are needed
when using the target language. Examples of a task-based syllabus may include applying for
a job, ordering food via the telephone and getting housing information over the telephone.
6 A content-based syllabus. A content-based syllabus in language teaching is actually not a
language syllabus. The primary purpose of instruction is to teach some subjects or
information using the target language. The subject is primary and language learning occurs
automatically while language learners are studying the subject. An example of a content-
based syllabus is a science class that is taught in the target language.

12. The Definition of Methodology
The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics
defines methodology as
1.... the study of the practices and procedures
used in teaching, and the principles and beliefs
that underlie them.
Methodology includes
a. study of the nature of language skills (e.g.
reading, writing, speaking, listening, and
procedures for teaching them)

13. Cont...
b. study of the preparation of lesson plans,
materials, and textbooks for teaching
language skills.
c. the evaluation and comparison of language
teaching methods (e.g., the audiolingual
method)
1. Such practices, procedures, principles, and
beliefs themselves.
(Richards, et al. 1985,p177)

14. A set of definitions that as closely as possible on
current usage
 Methodology: Pedagogical practices in
general (including theoretical underpinnings
and related research). Whatever
considerations are involved in “how to teach”
are methodological.
 Approach: Theoretically well-informed
positions and beliefs about the nature of
language, the nature of language learning,
and the applicability of both to pedagogical
settings.

15. A set of definitions that as closely as possible on
current usage
 Method: A generalized set of classroom
specifications for accomplishing linguistic
objectives. Methods tend to be concerned
primarily with teacher and student roles and
behaviors and secondarily with such features
as linguistic and subject-matter objectives,
sequencing, and materials. They are
sometimes – but not always – thought of as
being broadly applicable to a variety of
audiences in a variety of contexts.

16. A set of definitions that as closely as possible on
current usage
 Curriculum/syllabus: Specifications – or in
Richards and Rodgers’s terminology, “designs” –
for carrying out a particular language program.
Features include a primary concern with the
specification of linguistics and subject-matter
objectives, sequencing, and materials to meet
the needs of a designated group of learners in a
defined context.
(The term “syllabus” is used more customarily in the
United Kingdom to refer to what is commonly
called a “curriculum” in the United States.)

17. A set of definitions that as closely as possible on
current usage
 technique (also commonly referred to by
other terms” ): Any of a wide variety of
exercise, activities, or tasks used in the
language classroom for realizing lesson
objectives.
( Harmer:2001; Kumaravadivelu,2006; Richards
& Renandya, 2002)

18. 2. Background to language teaching
Methodology
 For many years , the goal of language pedagogy
was to “find the right method: - a
methodological magic formula that would work
for all learners at all times (Brown, 2002)
 The dominant method for much of the last
century (in the nineteenth century) was the
grammar translation method. This was
challenged in the 1950s and 1960s by
audiolingualism, a method that is still very
popular today, and whose influence can be seen
in a variety of drill-based techniques and
exercises.

19. Cont...
 Audiolinguism was the first method to be based on a
theory of learning- behaviourism, which viewed all
learning as a process of forming habits, and on theory
of language – structural linguistics.
 Behaviorism and structural linguistics provided the
following key characteristics of audiolingulism:
 Priority is given to spoken rather than written
language.
 Language learning is basically a matter of developing a
set of habits through drilling.
 Teach the language, not about the language. (Avoid
teaching grammar rules. Get learners to develop their
skills through drill and practice – teach through
“analogy” not “analysis” (Moulton,1963)

20. The major characteristics of Grammar
Translation
1. Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use
of the target language.
2. Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated
words.
3. Long, elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar
are given.
4. Grammar provides the rules for putting words together, and
instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of
words.
5. Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early.
6. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are
treated as exercises in grammatical analysis.
7. Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected
sentences from the target language into the mother tongue.
8. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979,p3)

21. Cont...
 GTM does virtually nothing to enhance a
student’s communicative ability in the language.
 GTM is a method for which there is no theory.
 On the other hand, one can understand why
GTM remains so popular.
 It requires few specialized skills on the part of
teachers.
 Test of grammar rules and of translations are
easy to construct and can be objectively scored.

22. The major characteristics of Audio Lingual
Method
1. New material is presented in dialogue form.
2. There is dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases, and overlearning.
3. Structures are sequenced by means of constractive analysis and taught one at a
time.
4. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills.
5. There is little or no grammar explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive
analogy rather than by deductive explanation.
6. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context.
7. There is much use of tapes, language labs, and visual aids.
8. Great importance is attached to pronunciation.
9. Very little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
10. Successful responses are immediately reinforced.
11. There is a great effort to get students to produce error-free utterances.
12. There is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.
Adapted from Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979,p3)

23. Cognitive Code Learning
 In the 1960s, behaviorism and structural
linguistics were severely criticized as being
inadequate representations of both learning
process and the nature of language.
 Psychologists proposed cognitive psychology
while the linguist Chomsky developed a new
theory called transformational-generative
grammar.

24. Cont...
 Both approaches emphasized thinking,
comprehension, memory, and the uniqueness
of language learning to the human species.
(cognitive code learning)
 This approach promoted language learning as
an active mental process rather than a
process of habit formation.
 Grammar was back in fashion, and classroom
activities were designed that encouraged
learners to work out grammar rules for
themselves through inductive reasoning.

25. Humanistic Approach
 These method emphasized the important of
emotional factors in learning, and proponents of
these methods believed that linguistic models
and psychological theories were less important
to successful language acquisition than
emotional or affective factors.
 They believed that successful learning would
take place if learners could be encouraged to
adopt the right attitudes and interests in relation
to the target language and target culture. The
best known of these methods were the silent
way, suggestopedia and community language
learning and Total Physical Response.

26. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
 During 1970s, a major reappraisal of
language occurred. Linguists began to look at
language, not as interlocking sets of
grammatical, lexical, and phonological rules,
but as a tool for expressing meaning.
 This reconceptualization had a profound
effect on language teaching methodology.
 In the earliest versions of CLT, meaning was
emphasized over form, fluency over accuracy.

27. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
 In recent years, the broad approach known as CLT has
been realized methodologically by task-based
language teaching (TBLT).
 In TBLT, language lessons are based on learning experiences
that have nonlinguistic outcome, and in which there is a clear
connection between the things learners do in class and the
things they will ultimately need to do outside of the
classroom.
For example:
 listening to a weather forecast and deciding what to wear;
 Ordering a meal;
 Planning a party;
 Finding one’s way around town
 In these tasks, language is used to achieve nonlanguage outcomes. For
example, the ultimate aim of ordering a meal is not use correctly
formed wh-questions, but to get food and drink on the table.

28. References
Brown, H.D.2002. English Language Teaching in the “ Post-Methods”Era: Toward
better diagnonis, treatment, and assessment. In Richards, J. and W.
Renandya (eds.) Methodology in Language Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Brown, H.D.2007. Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language
Pedagogy. New York: Pearson.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane.2000. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. (2nd
eds.) New York: Oxford University Press.
Nunan, D. 2003. Practical English Language Teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill
Pentcheva, M & Todor Shovov.2003. Whole Language, Whole Person: A handbook
of
Language Teaching Methodology.
Richards, C Jack. 1995. The Language Teaching Matrix. New York: Cambridge
University Press.