nf0988: namex i'm the third of the gang of four er and i'd like you please just a-, as we begin to look at these warm up questions i should just say before we start er i'm not being recorded because the B-B-C has heard about me and is desperate to get their hands on me i'm being recorded because this is part of a language teaching project that CALS is doing to record authentic lectures for use with presessional students before they start on courses at the university and also to provide a database of authentic language and i think those are two things that show the directions in which modern language teaching is going that people are now no longer interested in native speaker intuitions about what goes on er in the real d-, language context we're now actually interested in what people do and we want to give our learners access to what people actually do not what linguists think they do or native speakers intuit they do and i think it's a very good example of er practice in our field okay warm up questions i'm going to give you a couple of minutes just to think about how were you taught foreign languages at school you don't have to use any of the er descriptions of methodology that were provided by namex in session one just think about how you were taught foreign languages at school what kind of activities did you do in class a very important question who did most of the talking and what was the attitude to errors i'm going to give you five minutes to just sort of note down your answers to those questions please don't spend the time copying the questions down i'd rather you er you answer them nf0988: okay if you've just come in we're looking at these questions noting down couple of points about your own experiences learning languages being taught languages nf0988: do talk to your partner if you've had enough time to think of it on your own your neighbour are you having problem identifying a language sf0989: no no nf0988: or are you just thinking generically sf0989: nf0988: [laughter] that's [laughter] that's meaningful nf0988: where are you from you're from Germany aren't you and you're from Greece okay so maybe we'll have different experiences there come on share your experiences nf0988: you're both British aren't you sm0990: yes sf0991: yes nf0988: yes okay so let's see what the British er perspective on this is nf0988: are you both British sf0992: no nf0988: no where are you from sf0992: nf0988: right you're British oh you're Australian oh okay right okay so you did Bahasa Indonesian did you or did you do French sf0992: nf0988: right sf0992: nf0988: yeah right okay okay so similar or different your experiences of as learning languages have you er has it come back sf0993: [laughter] nf0988: okay just as er some of you have started speaking i'm going to stop you that's a well known communicative device [laugh] er let's see what we've got okay anybody like to kick off we had one comment which is i can't remember which i think is er perhaps symptomatic of a lot of modern language teaching around the world how would anybody like to kick off how were you taught let's have somebody from Germany i know we've some Germans here how were you taught foreign languages at school you're not representative of the whole country it's all right you can just talk for yourself [laughter] how were you taught sf0995: well personally er a set of grammar rules was introduced er exercises to do nf0988: okay sf0995: this attitude of like test against nf0988: right grammar rules and exercises we have a Greek representative i'm sorry i know you so it's unfortunate sf0996: er yes [laughter] nf0988: okay how were you taught sf0996: er i wanted to say about the er the teachers using the L-one language nf0988: all the time sf0996: all the time and in the beginning but then as you get a lot more advanced we're using er mostly the L-two nf0988: ah okay that's the one of the points that namex made that sometimes actually when we were looking at the Bahasa Indonesia class it's easier to use the target language at the beginning stages but later to L-one explanation was it explanation or discussion sf0996: er explanation nf0988: er er okay sm0997: okay nf0988: anybody actu-, can we have a British person who'd like to er admit to being taught foreign languages sf0998: the other way round 'cause nf0988: mm sf0998: er G-C-S-E learn this er this is for German teaching nf0988: right sf0998: nf0988: right so for some people it was the other way round vice versa okay anybody e-, yeah sf0999: yeah i learned French but it was actually when i moved to France in a British school nf0988: mm sf0999: so it's a little bit different and i remember the first classes it was very much it was all in the er target language and things like nursery rhymes stories of that culture so it was very much almost immersion and then later on the textbooks and deal with all the grammar and stuff like that nf0988: okay so a different approach there yeah sf1000: i did nf0988: Australia comes to Britain yes sf1000: i did two series of Latin and er that was entirely grammar translation point of view because basically nf0988: right yes there's a very good reason for that of course it's very difficult to find Romans [laughter] to talk to in Latin but okay so grammar translation perhaps if we move on we'll unpack that a little bit more because the next question actually i think is quite indicative of of the methodology what kind of activities did you do in class what kind of activities one of our Chinese colleagues what kind of activities did you do in class when you were learning English sf1001: er when er i learned English about twenty-six years ago [laughter] nf0988: right sf1001: can't remember that er kinds of activities er and group work and pair work er pair work i mean pairs and er picture talking nf0988: okay picture sf1001: talking nf0988: talking sf1001: nf0988: right okay so describing sf1001: and the role plays nf0988: role play okay and of course we've got the grammar exercises lurking up the top anybody want to add anything to that any other kinds of activities yes sf1002: we did a lot of singing sf1003: yes nf0988: right okay yes the er Beatles approach to language learning where would we be without the Beatles yes sf1004: er er reading comprehensions er listening nf0988: reading comprehension listening activities yeah who did most of the talking sf1005: student sf1006: teacher sf1007: teacher nf0988: okay put your hand up if you feel the teacher did most of the talking sf1008: depends on the level nf0988: yes okay beginners' level sf1008: nf0988: intermediate level sf1008: nf0988: advanced level sf1008: nf0988: is that because nobody got to advanced level or it because [laughter] okay so the teacher but it does depends on level so more at lower levels was there anybody who was taught in a class where the students did most of the talking right okay and what was the attitude to errors what was the attitude to errors were they seen as helpful or problematic sf1008: again it depended on the level at G-C-S-E level it was basically pronunciation errors were er corrected but ba-, and basic grammar but at A- level the whole lot was corrected nf0988: okay so sometimes something to be corrected and again the amount depended on the level anybody else with a different approach to errors in their educational background was every error corrected or just some sf1009: just the ones that kept cro-, cropping up that were really nf0988: okay so common errors corrected did anybody experience all errors corrected two okay common errors corrected down to all errors corrected so we've got a a cline variety okay i think what we've got here is actually quite a good picture of how people in the past and perhaps still today are being taught modern la-, modern foreign languages think Latin is a little bit different but still attitude to the target language which namex has talked about attitude to er grammar still there very much for most people the kinds of activities that people are doing in the language classroom grammar exercises but yes lots more talking and authentic activities presumably these were genuine authentic songs but the talking very often the teacher doing too much of it or at least a lot of it you can tell my prejudice there but doing a lot of the talking especially at the lower levels and the attitude to error ranging hugely from common err-, did anybody learn in an environment where errors were not corrected at all okay so everybody experienced some errors corrected ranging from common errors to all errors corrected this week and next week we're going to look with me at language learning and how it's moved on how we've got from books like this in nineteen- fifty-nine i-, please don't copy it down er An Intermediate Course for Adult Learners of English which would probably be familiar to the people who had a more grammatical approach to language teaching in their lives above below preposition above is contrasted with below just as over is contrasted with under in some cases over may be used in place of above and under may be used in place of below and the book looks like that and if you gave that to a modern language learner today they'd be out of your classroom like a shot but that was what worked then moving on from that to little book like this nineteen-seventy-two which had i'll read you out the conte-, some of the contents here cont-, it's called situational dialogues and the topics were things like transport communication health greetings in town and in town you were at a hotel finding a room making an appointment finding a job at the post office here's a little extract giving you gripping details about what you can buy at post offices and giving you little dialogues to practise and drill what's the postage on these letters to Thailand please i'll have to check do you need anything else yes a three P stamp these were the d-, the good old days [laughter] that'll be eight eighty-five P in all very sweet er so and drills labelled as such so still behaviourist practice there very concrete situations very concrete language so we've gone from that to that pictures are creeping in rather simple pictures but they are there there's print is less dense it's more attractive only a bit moving on to things like this nineteen-seventy-seven Functions of English and here are the chapter headings the most important one first talking about yourself starting a conversation making a date [laughter] asking for information question techniques answering techniques getting further information getting people to do things requesting attracting attention et cetera so still very dense print the odd the very odd picture er and focusing on doing things with language previously we were looking at the situations in which language was used they're looking at doing things with language and quite dense text this is from that book but real language coming out here telling you what you're supposed to know to tell a story narrative technique an illustrative conversation well er it really happened er i was driving along in a very er er car old banger er er and on it goes so looking more like the way we talk but still perhaps somewhat overwhelming to today where we have books like this which i think you will agree look very different lots of colour different foci in the contents of the book talking about skills and tasks so we've got a range of materials here but some of the things looking perhaps a bit similar talking about your past vocabulary is still there the skills of reading and speaking are still there so how did we get from this to this and that's the focus of the next two sessions on the handout you've got to try and sort of frame this whole course i've given you a diagram from Stern which i think is actually quite useful when we're trying to see how theory relates to practice we-, how does it all fit together here you have what he calls a conceptual framework for second language teaching theories and this is the level at which namex was was looking with you the level of linguistics what we know from soci-, psycholinguistics the history of language teaching namex touched on moving up now and also namex's sessions to think about what educational linguistics tell us from the theory and research background about learning and language and teaching and i hope that from namex's very informative sessions you did get the picture that we don't know all the answers we're very far from knowing all the answers about how people l-, a-, about language or how people learn language and certainly teaching is er a marriage of theory and practice that very often is influenced by the knowledge of the teacher the needs and the attitude of the learners and the materials available at the time so i don't think we've cracked it i think modern language teaching is still not perfect we haven't got all the answers er but i do know that English language teaching seems to be at the head of the field it seems to be the area where most money and resources are going so if it isn't in English language teaching it's probably not in other modern language teaching and i think that's why it's important to look at what's going on in English language teaching today the third level having moved from foundations to interlevel up to practice is methodology content and objectives strategies resources evaluation of outcomes and this is really the area i'm going to be focusing on here and here okay namex in h-, second session asked the question what is education for why have education what's it for i'm not going to embarrass you by seeing if you can remember the answers that he gave but two important distinctions and they're on the handout are commodity versus public good thinking about how language teaching fits in to the whole overall picture because i don't think we can divorce language teaching from education as a whole so we need to think about the values and beliefs the aims and standards the methods and techniques which are whole part of the wider educational experience the whole curriculum that learners experience foreign language teaching is not an isolated element it's part of the educational tradition in the countries where it's taught so what is education for at a very basic level it can be a commodity a commodity is where the learner is a client a customer who pays a lot of money very often or whose company or sponsor pays a lot of money to come and study with you and this client or customer or customer has needs and wants but particularly wants and if you don't satisfy those wants what will the customer do sf1010: go elsewhere nf0988: go elsewhere they'll leave your language school they'll drop out of your programme they'll take their money their time elsewhere so that's one view the other view of course is of education as public good and in a system where education is viewed as a public good we don't talk about clients and customers who do we talk about sf1011: students nf0988: students yes we talk about students and learners or pupils if you like at high school level and they very often are not perceived to have wants it's much more likely they're perceived to have ss: needs nf0988: needs and the role of education is to provide those needs to satisfy those needs and who here who defines the wants of your client who defines those wants you the teacher sf1012: no nf0988: no okay that is defined by the client which could be the learner or it could be sf1013: sponsor nf0988: their sponsor so in the commercial world of language teaching it could be the boss who has said go and teach my employees English in order to do the following things this is what i want you to do in the world of public good who defines the students' needs sm1014: nf0988: okay yes it can be the government in a state education system with a national curriculum such as we now have here who else can define them sm1015: parents nf0988: mm think you'd be lucky but they might i'm going to put parents in a very small letters i think 'cause i'm not sure about parents ss: nf0988: mm sf1016: educationalists nf0988: maybe it's the world is changing i suppose sf1017: i think nf0988: educationalists yes educationalists people in universities linguistics departments schools of education yes sf1017: people with nf0988: right yes it could be er it could be administrators within a hierarchy experts basically of one kind or another and that dichotomy i think is quite important in showing the differences between and the driving forces that have influenced English language teaching because increasingly what sector is this does this view prevail what sector we're thinking about private and state what sector is influenced by this view sm1018: private nf0988: this is the private sector sf1019: oh nf0988: this is the private language schools the private teachers the business world and here who's probably going to be arguing for language teaching as a public good sf1020: nf0988: it's the state sector this is the state sector which views students as learners with needs that can be defined by experts rather than as clients with wants which will be defined by them or their bosses and the people who've sent them to you that whole view of education permeates everything it's course it's not just language teaching but we're interested here in language teaching because language teaching is part of that tradition it's not a neutral activity the attitudes towards education the attitudes towards language influence very much what goes on in the classroom and you cannot divorce language teaching from the social view of education and where it fits in namex also talked about different education tradi-, traditions it's a while ago he talked about three broad perspectives you don't have this on you handout but you do have er a detailed breakdown of it which we're going to look at in a moment three very broad perspectives from Littlewood of the purposes of education one is very traditional one to pass on value knowledge and culture so that you see education as passing from the previous generation down to the next generation the knowledge they will need another purpose of education is to prepare learners as members of society so you have needs which you feel your society ne- , er must fulfil and you view education as a vehicle for doing this and that will influence how language is taught we'll see how in a moment and the third view which is much more humanistic that was the word namex used a humanistic view of education is where you see learners as individual selves who must be developed and the process of education as being developing the self bringing out the individual's best characteristics features allowing them to learn and to fulfil their potential whereas here we're more interested in producing useful members of society and here put extremely we're interested in in passing down tablets of stone from one generation to the next so three very very different views of education which will influence how we see language learning and that's the next page on your handout if you could have a look at the next diagram i've got it on the he-, overhead transparency but you've also got in under two-point-two different education traditions so fitting into this analysis i've given them slightly different labels from namex because these are the ones that Littlewood uses namex talked about an academic tradition he also talked about social reformist tradition and he talked about a humanist tradition but they map onto these three okay looking at each of these in turn and i hope as i'm talking about these you're thinking okay what's the tradition i come from what is my educational tradition is it changing thinking first of all about classical humanism remember the purpose here is to pass on knowledge from one generation to the next and here the main purpose of education is to transmit volu-, value knowledge and culture to an elite section of the next generation i think that point about elitism is quite important grammar schools in Britain for example selective education in many parts of the world the differences between gymnasium and technical schools for example reconstructionism to bring about desired social change and one c-, [cough] examples of this at the moment might be the Eastern European countries that are changing radically and changing their education systems from this to this in order to promote development and progressivism seen perhaps as the sort of trendy lefty view of education the er self-development finding out about yourself self-fulfilment education being there to allow you to be the best you can be in British government parlance at the moment so those three different traditions very different and each with a slightly different main focus if we look first of all at classical humanism the main focus there was to develop general intellectual abilities and within that context grammar translation fitted very well it prepared you to think it gave you an intellectual discipline intellectual training however if you actually want someone to contribute to life as a member of society you also need people who can communicate and do things in language as well as in mathematics history whatever and progressivism is to develop the individual person and there you might see from a language point of view more interest in helping learners learn about themselves how they learn best how do i learn a foreign language best what's the best way for me to do it as an individual very different attitudes to content classical humanism the language is there as a valued subject content under reconstructionism preparing you for the world of work and society it's a very utilitarian view you want knowledge and skills that are useful for social life and that's where people worry about government interference because the government will have perhaps a different view of what's useful er for social life and the individual and certainly may not think it's important to promote experiences that will stimulate growth intellectual growth personal growth so how do all of these fit in with language teaching and the goals of language teaching under a classical humanist approach yes you need knowledge of diff-, of of a different language system but you also need a better understanding of your own language and you need to be able to talk about language you need a metalanguage to talk about language linguistic awareness it's also useful to have knowledge and understanding of a different culture and civilization and all of these will promote general intellectual skills and if you look at A-level syllabuses in this country if you look at the baccalaureate in France if you look at er most countries high school leaving qualifications that is very often the view of of language that is promoted it's an intellectual development stage so that a native speaker could fail the exam a native speaker of English could easily fail the French baccalaureate in English in my opinion because you're having to display intellectual capacities and levels of learning and thinking that go beyond being able to speak the language in fact i think i might fail the French baccalaureate in English er okay so reconstructionism preparing you for life preparing you for society so there language is seen as a useful skill for many kinds of work wonderful for travel can get you out travelling better and wider possibilities for communication with others within the world of travel but also the world of work of business commerce and it will give you hopefully a better understanding of other members of society minority groups within your own society and also native speakers of the target language living within your own community so much more utilitarian and less intellectual view progressivism developing the self the humanistic approach has a much less restricted perspective of the world anything that helps you develop and grow is useful is much more interested in other ways of expressing your own self beyond the purely utilitarian pragmatic is interested in developing possibilities for future learning lifelong learning so trying to establish the foundations for future language learning there are language programmes called language readiness supervisors which actually don't teach language at all but get learners to think about language what's involved in language preparing them to go on and learn other languages and a richer interpersonal network for one's own existence so you're learning language there as part of your own personal development so three very different traditions i'm going to embarrass you now by asking you if you'd like to commit yourself and your education system to one of these traditions is there anybody here who feels they grew up in this tradition the classical humanism tradition i certainly did i went to an English grammar school and that's what i had okay right anybody who er has grown up in a sort of reconstructionist education system preparing people for society for the world of work much more utilitarian view okay this one progressivism development of the self personality being the best you can be one poor soul right okay and there's a few people who presumably are not quite sure and who think well okay i had a blend of that sometimes we were doing this sometimes we were doing this but often i was also encouraged to do this i think many education systems today are a blend of these different types it's not one or the other Littlewood went on having summarized those systems in that way to look at how those three approaches influence the language curriculum and that's the next thing on your handout the classical humanist approach might fit most comfortably with a structural view of language a more functional view of language fits in here how we use language structural how does language operate how does it hang together what are the bits and pieces that make up the language as an intellectual discipline as well as a a language learning discipline here we're interested in the functions of language how is language used to do business to buy things to make complaints to request information and here very much more looking at process how how do people learn so here are concerned with what what is language and here how how do people learn language and the next table two-point-three looks at that in some detail again based on on Littlewood in a classical humanist approach and a structural approach what you want your learners to do is to master the grammar and the vocabulary of the language those are your clear aims the syllabus is there to select and sequence those structures and vocabulary using such criteria as complexity how difficult is it is the simple past more difficult than the simple present what about progressive where does that fit in importance how important is it to be able to use the passive voice and teachability how easy is it to teach the present perfect as opposed to the past simple so criteria complexity importance teachability what's missing there anything missing if you're looking at language to see how complex it is how important it is how teachable it is anything that strikes you as missing sf1021: the students' needs sf1022: students' needs nf0988: the students' needs yes do they actually need to know all this stuff sf1023: nf0988: or want to interests there's nothing there about interest so students' needs and interests and wants perhaps being somewhat neglected there unless you believe which many people following those syllabuses do that they n-, they have to have this foundation in order to move on okay a functional syllabus its goal is to equip learners to fulfil their communicative needs their communicative needs in an appropriate range of situations we saw some of the situations earlier at the bank at the post office at the airport communicative needs asking for information giving information requesting advice those kinds of things so the syllabus selects and sequences functions or skills according to usefulness which didn't come in here i think that was the point being made at the back there usefulness complexity of the language they require you've still got to think about complexity of language if it's too complex it doesn't matter how useful it is learners will not remember it and finally process here the goal is to create contexts which will stimulate the potential for natural language growth to help learners to develop naturally as language learners the syllabus provides a sequence of contexts no longer sequence of language or sequence of functions but contexts for learning learning now not learners so much but focusing on learning and how people learn and providing contexts for learning which are roughly graded it's got to be rough because i don't know how you do it systematically it's very difficult to grade context very relatively easy to grade structures quite difficult to grade functions almost impossible to grade contexts to the demands they make on communication skills rather than by strictly linguistic criteria so we've got a move from language to process language focus the what of linguistics to the how of linguistics and a shift in attention from what linguists can tell us to what sociolinguists can tell us and educationalists can tell us so influences coming in from other fields namex talked about the broadening of our discipline beyond just pure linguistics into sociolinguistics psycholinguistics here we're broadening it into education as well any questions about that or comments three very different approaches three very different views of what's going on in education and how people learn and of course you can have a shift from one to the other as we saw from the descriptions that people gave earlier very often the shift will be according to level some people may find i think somebody described beginning levels focusing here on structures and more intermediate levels moving on into functions and perhaps at more advanced levels thinking about process but there will be other people who may have gone the other way and have decided that process is the important starting point what you do with language comes next and you leave linguistic analysis to an advanced stage there's no one way of doing it but this movement blending of approaches is very common and probably to be encouraged because we don't yet know exactly which one works best and even if we did it may vary from culture to culture from learner to learner when you have this movement from here coming back to who's doing most of the talking who's doing most of the talking in this classroom ss: teacher nf0988: the teacher who's doing most of the talking in this classroom sf1024: students nf0988: students but teachers too and here ss: students nf0988: students and teachers together so there is a shift attitude to error what's the attitude to error here sf1025: has to be corrected [laugh] nf0988: it's got to be corrected got to be stamped out here you want to buy an aeroplane ticket does it matter if you say can i has a ticket or can i have a ticket you'll still get the ticket i suspect okay so that the attitude to error here more relaxed and over here attitude to error what do you think natural language growth what do we know about natural language growth what do children do sf1025: make errors nf0988: they make errors so errors seen as part of the process not necessarily something to be glorified and celebrated but part of the process not something that needs to be to be stamped out and if we have this mixture of approaches this variable focus approach you end up with a sort of progression from control this is not on your handout control with focus on form manipulation of language drills that useful legacy from the behaviourist approach teacher in control teacher controlling the language and convergent outcomes all the students in the class saying the same thing writing the same thing at the end hopefully so teacher controlling very tightly what goes on put these sentences into the past tense i go to town you want everyone to write i went to town convergent everybody coming up with the same utterance which is correct and as we move perhaps in time perhaps with level of learner you can move from greater degree of control down to here where you have sort of absolute freedom with the teacher slowly relinquishing control helping but not controlling to very divergent outcomes a role a task with the teacher as a monitor but the learner controlling what is said get into groups and talk about your language learning experience is a language activity i have no idea what you said to each other i couldn't control it because you are bringing your own focus on communication your own arguments and ideas the learner's in control in the driving seat the teacher is there as a monitor and that context the teacher is encouraging developing promoting divergent outcomes i think most language teachers would argue today that what we need is a judicious mixture of the two that there are occasions when you have to do this in order to allow the learner to focus on accuracy because they can't do this and this all the time that there are times when you need to look at the language particularly if it's very different from your mother tongue and where the teacher will control and manipulate drilling for example but there will be other occasions where the student the learner will be free to experiment and explore the language and make their own mistakes what's happening as we move down here of course to the teacher is the teacher is actually losing control the teacher is stopping being a teacher and i think when we think about language teaching we need to think about the role of the teacher here the teacher is boss the teacher is what doing what i'm doing now standing at the front controlling as you move down here the teacher's role changes here you are arbiter of the language you are linguistic model what are you down here when you've got students doing communicative activities discussing things what's your role sf1026: facilitator nf0988: you're a facilitator yes well done you've read the book you're a facilitator what else who sets up the activity and gets everybody doing it sf1027: coordinator nf0988: sorry sf1027: coordinator nf0988: you're a coordinator you're a facilitator you're a coordinator think of the business world you're a sf1028: s-, supervisor nf0988: you're a supervisor yes you're a supervisor popping round making sure people are doing it right needi-, if they need help checking you're also a manager you're managing the classroom managing activities however most teachers even within a communicative context will find themselves in the situation of actually having a syllabus that they have to follow and that's what i'd like to move on to look at now before we have a break curriculum and syllabus are two words that are very often used interchangeably particularly i think er between America and Britain there are differences i don't think it's particularly useful having two words that mean the same thing er when they can be used differently so what my definition here of curriculum is very much looking at what goes on in language learning not just aims and content but also methodology philosophy and evaluation but a a curriculum is the whole package it's everything it's yes it's what you do and it's how you do it it's also how it's evaluated so curriculum can be also includes assess-, evaluation of the programme that you're doing feedback from learners feedback from teachers on how successful the programme is so curriculum is a very broad umbrella term which includes syllabus syllabus is part of a curriculum but for me curriculum is is more is broader syllabus is narrower syllabus means aims and content more and i've got a task here i'd like you to do with a little bit missing at the bottom there i'd like you to look at before we go on to talk about syllabus i'd like to get your attitude to it i've given you here a section from a questionnaire for language teachers from Ron White's book which is in the references at the back The E-L-T Curriculum and i'd like you to look at these six statements and see whether you agree or disagree left hand box agree right hand box disagree number twenty says the best syllabus is one which doesn't focus on language at all which doesn't focus on language at all so i'd like you just to look at those mm agree and disagree with each of those statements thinking about a language syllabus and if you agree with it with the s-, a statement you can tick the box if you're not sure you can sit on the fence okay fill it in when you've filled it in compare notes with somebody sitting near you please i'm going to give you five minutes to look at that and discuss it nf0988: when you've filled it in do turn to people sitting behind you or next to you and see if they agree nf0988: which one are you sitting on the fence on [laughter] which one which one's that sf1029: nf0988: right sf1029: nf0988: okay okay why are you not sure about that one sf1029: i think you need some organization nf0988: mm sf1029: but not so much nf0988: right okay sf1030: nf0988: so interest that's factor sf1030: yeah nf0988: yes sf1030: nf0988: okay sf1031: nf0988: mm and did you enjoy it sf1031: er the main factor nf0988: yes sf1031: so that nf0988: yes yes yes yes yes i mean a good teacher can and also a good teacher with the right students sf1031: mm nf0988: you know people have been sort of selected sf1031: yeah nf0988: presumably to follow that approach sf1032: that's why i don't think nf0988: mm sf1032: nf0988: right sf1032: nf0988: yes yes yes sf1032: nf0988: yes and the if the individual need's there i mean that brings us on to one of these other questions about needs sf1033: nf0988: yeah and some students will want linguistic teaching and others may not so i mean that's an important point too and you say you do agree with that because you wouldn't be against it completely then sf1033: no nf0988: if somebody needs it or felt they wanted it yeah okay su1086: nf0988: well go through the others see how you do with them sf1034: well i think that nf0988: yeah sf1034: nf0988: mm sf1035: nf0988: right ss: nf0988: yes okay tha-, i think yes i think it's a question of how far but you're saying that you think that should be one of the strands one of the factors sf1036: yeah nf0988: yeah yeah sf1036: i think it should be one of the factors nf0988: yeah sf1036: that's the whole nf0988: right okay so it's a question of degree sf1036: yeah yeah nf0988: yeah absolutely nf0988: okay good you agree are you not sure sf1037: not sure [laughter] sf1038: nf0988: right right sf1038: nf0988: right yeah yeah sf1038: nf0988: yes but also this issue of wants and needs you know you may have learners who want you to do it that way okay can i stop you there i'm going to give you a ten minute break and i hope some of those ideas will continue to circulate round your head while you rush off to the loo or to wherever it is you go ten minutes can we meet back at five past please by that clock nf0988: okay can you look at the answers to these questions that you've been working on okay agree disagree remember our definition of syllabus including aims and content of a teaching programme not yet specifying methodology or how that programme will be evaluated that's more a curriculum level so thinking about syllabus as aims and content of a teaching programme who felt that it's important to have a carefully graded structural syllabus and that that's the best way to organize a language course namex yes anybody else don't be afraid it's nothing to be ashamed of i'm quite happy to have closet structuralists in my [laughter] okay right okay so we've got about four people here who agree okay so i'll put a little tick who disagrees with that put your hand up come on be confident so about the same number who's not sure [laughter] right okay the fence-sitters more of them okay right er somebody who said you do think it's important would you like to explain quickly why why is it important to have a carefully graded structural syllabus as the best way to organize a language syllabus or a language course sm1039: at some stage you need nf0988: can you hear him sm1039: you need to work from sf1040: no speak up please nf0988: can you speak up namex please sm1039: need to work from some structure to start with nf0988: okay so he's saying it doesn't matter what else you're trying to do you need to have a structural syllabus underlying it all and that that should be the foundation yeah sf1040: should think it's a like er er designing such a such a course and i was one of the persons saying yes er it's just that be er flexible enough to respond to the bigger things er approaching are er are occurring in in learners nf0988: right okay sf1040: to say okay i've got a certain amount of time to reach this within this this kind of of a framework and and nf0988: right so you're arguing for flexibility sf1040: yes nf0988: but you're still saying there should be a structural syllabus underlying sf1040: yeah nf0988: the whole programme people who said no anybody like to er fight your corner sf1041: er actually the same reason [laughter] in that there needs to be sort of flexibility nf0988: mm sf1041: er and to to grade it so i'm not sure if it's possible to grade it exactly to the needs of students in the first place given that students' needs are different with them in either one group nf0988: right sf1041: or a set of groups teaching nf0988: right okay so a counter-argument being flexibility is more is important and that it depends upon the needs of the learners you may have some learners who do need that kind of a syllabus you may others who for whom it will be a disaster and they won't learn okay initial teaching should be based on a careful contrastive analysis of the grammatical differences between L-one and L- two who agrees with this okay a solitary figure who disagrees with it right that's a big one who's not sure like to sit on the fence i'll allow you to do that okay well i'm sorry it's you er why you agree with this sf1042: er i think it does depend on whether you have a mixed group like lots of diff-, lots of backgrounds or whether you have students all from one background but i work at er International College as a language assistant nf0988: mm sf1042: with Japanese students and one of the things they do there is to teach a phonology class where most of the exercises are actually based on differences between English and Japanese and that really does help the phonology to improve nf0988: right sf1042: because things like coat and caught nf0988: mm sf1042: minimal pairs they can nf0988: lock and rock sf1042: yeah [laugh] nf0988: yes sf1042: they can't tell the difference in Japanese nf0988: okay sf1042: so that's really helpful to them but it wouldn't be so useful to people from different language backgrounds nf0988: okay so the argument being that certainly at the beginning stages or in this case at further down the road a useful thing for the learner is to see differences similarities and differences particularly when the languages are as different as they are in the in the example you gave Japanese and English people who feel that this is not a good idea yes could you explain sf1043: er yes because i thought er about the grammatical differences that er maybe students would be confused and they would er use their grammar with er their foreign language words and be i don't know nf0988: okay so you see it as interference that that sf1043: yes nf0988: that comparisons with the mother tongue will cause interference sf1043: yes nf0988: in language learning and our other speaker saw it as actually helpful and providing er points of contrast that students can focus on so allowing to focus in on particular areas of difficulty and i think those are the two sides of the argument here and i think it depends also of course on your teaching context and it's extremely difficult to do this in multilingual classes such as are found at language schools in Britain and the United States so very often there will be a pragmatic reason as well if you've got seven different language groups in your class from a mother tongue point of view it's going to be very difficult to focus in on particular contrastive er analysis between any two particular languages but it can be useful and for some learners it's important okay a syllabus should be based on known areas of difficulty in grammar and pron who agrees with this one okay who disagrees who's sitting on the fence who hasn't got a hand [laughter] right okay er right okay the no the ones who bel-, who agree with it why what's useful about fo-, basing it on known areas of difficulty anybody yeah mm sf1044: i think er misleading but er nf0988: mm sf1044: it's certainly areas that we should be taking into consideration nf0988: right sf1044: because you need to deal with problems nf0988: okay yes i think it is a matter of degree and of course what's an area of difficulty that is a problem to to define because that will vary very much ac-, from learner to learner and to what their previous language learning experience is what their previous er what their mother tongue is that will make a huge difference but okay there are things we know cause problems for certain learners and if we can predict that should a syllabus be based on it or should it just be something that's taken into account it's a question that that teachers need to address and i'm not saying what the answer is i think all of these things depends very much on who your learners are who your teachers are and what the situation is in which you're teaching okay communicative needs outside the classroom based on communicative needs outside the classroom agreers please hands up quite a lot of people disagreers not-knowers fence-sitters not sure yes okay there is a problem of course if i'm teaching English at high school in er Outer Mongolia can you tell me what my students' communicative needs outside the classroom are teaching at primary school increasingly language teaching is going down the levels of the education system more and more people are teaching English at primary school what are the communicative needs of primary school children outside the language classroom high school what are the communicative needs of learners [sneeze] at h-, sf1045: computers nf0988: okay sf1045: computers nf0988: computers all right chatlines [laughter] and er chatrooms okay yes but very very difficult to define very difficult to describe our field is full of acronyms there's E-F-L English as a foreign language there's E-S-L English as a second language there's E-A-P English for academic reasons and my particular favourite is this one oh there's T-E-F-L teaching English as a foreign language T-E-N-O-R teaching English for no obvious reason [laughter] and er there are lots of people around the world doing this and in that context it's extremely difficult to er di-, to predict the learners' communicative needs outside the classroom much easier in an E-S-P context English for specific purposes English for business English for academic study English for travel English for the hotel industry or whatever but the vast majority of language teachers unfortunately are working in a situation where it's not clear what the needs are going to be but if you know them yes obviously it's a good idea to teach towards them eighteen a syllabus should take students' wants and interests into account even when these are different from their needs i'll give you an example i was teaching a group of Algerian architects and we'd spent a lot of time looking at the language of buildings and the language of architecture and one day one of them came to see me and said could we please do something completely different and i said for example he said could we do the problem pages of newspapers i'm really interested in you know what all these love letters and complaints that people are sending in and he was just desperate to do something else now i didn't feel that he needed at that stage of his life to be familiar with the genre [laughter] of problem pages er in news-, newspapers but that was something he wanted to do and he was bored rigid by the architecture er programme that we had lovingly prepared for him so namex where are you now should a syllabus take students' wants and interests into account when they're different from their needs put your hand up if you agree wants and interests over needs okay yes why why the M word sf1046: keeps them motivated nf0988: yes keeps them motivated if they're bored they won't learn no matter how good it is for them anybody who thinks that you've got to hammer away at needs even if they're in conflict sf1047: would be if students are being sent by a particular company to learn a specific syllabus er and er even if the students really want to learn about problem pages if they're not paying and they've got a limit-, you've got a limited time to teach them a set syllabus designed between the teacher maybe and and the company involved and the company's paying you certainly don't want to be stuck in the middle when the students go back and tell their boss that they've just learned all about problem pages for the lesson nf0988: exactly yes yes okay there will be situations where the sponsor the boss will not like it also i was working at one time with air traffic controllers in China i didn't care what their wants were but i know they needed air traffic control language because i was going to be flying on their aeroplanes so er i would th-, [laughter] they could have asked for problem pages till the cows came home i was going to teach them the language of communicating with air traffic control and other airline pilots 'cause i knew [laughter] my life might depend upon it so it does depend on the context and that's a very good point who is paying okay where there is a choice communicative needs should take priority over grammatical grading in organizing a syllabus who agrees with this where you have a choice do you go for communicative needs or grammar hands up if you agree hands up [sneeze] if you agree okay [sneeze] bless you hands up if you disagree ah more closet structuralists hands up if you're not sure okay why are you not sure what's the dilemma sf1049: well i think er and i don't know really how you would determine which one is going to be more important 'cause you know to be able to communicate you need some kind of grammatical knowledge nf0988: mm sf1049: er but then there'll be so nf0988: right sf1049: i don't know nf0988: okay so seeing it very much as it's not an either-or situation you need to look at communicative needs as well as grammatical grading but the com-, the the the two need to go together and i think many syllabus designers would agree with you the best syllabus is one which doesn't focus on language at all doesn't focus on what but focuses on how anyone agree with this no language input explicitly lots of language lots of tasks activities but no explicit language focus who agrees with that one ooh so who disagrees with that one okay and some fence-sitters have we got some fence-sitters yes okay that's fine why do you disagree it's because you're all doing linguistics isn't it [laughter] if you agree with this you do yourselves out of a job you've got no choice at all but seriously why why why do you think it's important to have some focus on language sf1049: well i i'd like my students to be able to transfer acquired knowledge to er to to other areas and to to other contexts or er er i just like them to be able to reflect upon what they're doing nf0988: mm mm what's the danger do you know the the term er the danger if you if you never focus on er language at all what is the the danger for your learners think of little stones in the ground yes sorry sf1050: oh i was going to say that if if there's no focus on language in itself nf0988: mm sf1050: er but th-, there'd be a lot of teacher talking time er certainly at the beginning nf0988: mm sf1050: and there may not be er it may not be as communicative as you maybe would like it to be but nf0988: right sf1050: but maybe it may be a lot of copying nf0988: mm sf1050: and your students nf0988: mm sf1050: and things like that i'm not sure whether that nf0988: without an explicit focus on language sf1050: yeah nf0988: so that okay so that you you think you need the explicit focus on language to make sure they get it right and so that they're not just taking you as the sf1050: not just copying you nf0988: yes not just parroting imitating yes yes okay to make it more cognitive sf1050: yeah nf0988: and less behaviourist in a way okay fine i think the worry many teachers have is if you don't focus on language you can end up with the fluent but fossilized speaker and i would imagine most people have met these in their time this is the person who is very fluent in the target language can say everything they want to say but it is it's fossilized it it's frozen in stone errors and all and so that the language is fluent but not accurate inaccuracies are part of that learner's idiolect and they are no-, no longer focusing on the language per se but purely on communication and i think many for many teachers today that's a worry we do not wa-, no learner has ever said to me teach me to speak English inaccurately but they've also said i don't want to just focus on language i want to be able to communicate but they do also understand i think and if we're going to take their needs and wants into account that language is a system and they want to get it right they don't to be wrong okay so looking at syllabuses the next page i've photocopied for you it hasn't come out very well on my transparency but you've got a better version i've photocopied for you Chris Brumfit who's one of the leaders in our field he put a lot of thought into what is a syllabus and i thought this was quite a useful extended definition that we've got here on the handout a syllabus for many people is a document it's a piece of paper it's something handed down who from who hands down syllabuses to teachers in the state sector sf1051: nf0988: sorry sf1051: Ministry of Education nf0988: ministr-, in many countries it's the Ministry of Education if it's not the Ministry of Education it will be a head of department or somebody like that er some contexts where there are no syllabuses people will use the textbook can become the syllabus but that that i think is rather worrying because who is to say that the textbook writer had your students' needs in in mind when they wrote the book so most people would be more comfortable with a syllabus that is a specification of the work of a particular department in a school or college organized in subsections defining the work of a particular group or class so it's not just a generic textbook that anybody can buy around the world it's a specific er outline of what's going to be done by a particular group or class many syllabuses are linked to time and will specify a starting point and an ultimate goal what your students will be able to do by the end of the course by the end of the the period in which the syllabus is covering and that could be defined in grammatical terms it could be defined in phonological terms communicative terms functional terms things they can do by the end er a syllabus will specify some kind of sequence which will be based on some of the issues you looked at with namex sequencing intrinsic to a theory of language learning or to the structure of specified material relatable to language acquisition but i hope that you did get from namex's sessions the important point that we don't know a huge amount about the sequence of language learning beyond very basic morphemes and some structures we're not really very clear at the beginning level it's relatively easy at the m-, intermediate and more advanced level it's extremely difficult the other factor that will influence sequencing is administrative needs and resources the materials that you have and the teachers' capabilities it's a document of administrative convenience it's not theory it's based in theory but it's administrative convenience and so it'll only be partly justified on theoretical grounds so it's negotiable and adjustable a good syllabus will allow for some negotiation and syllabus writers will listen to teachers listen to learners and will adapt and adjust their syllabus according to the voices from the classroom that they hear and their own experience this is my favourite point a syllabus can only specify what is taught it cannot organize what is learned so that if i am inheriting a class from another teacher and they say this is the syllabus i look at it i'm very interested at the syllabus we did last year but i do not believe that means all those learners know everything covered by the syllabus as one of my colleagues once said the only way to cover a syllabus is to take brown paper and cover it completely from er so it's what is taught not what has been learned but what's important also about a syllabus is it's a public document and it's an expression of accountability parents will come sponsors will come and say you haven't done this page three of the syllabus says you should have taught this by now you haven't done it learners will do it too it's accountability it's a way of making teachers accountable and education systems accountable and you can tick things off and say i've taught it but you can't say they've learned it you can only say i've taught it i think so syllabus very important very useful document i would be very suspicious of a language programme that didn't have a syllabus and i want to move on now to talk about different kinds of syllabus er namex namex talked to you very quickly about grammar translation with the focus on written language translation from mother tongue to the target language and back a-, backwards he also talked about the direct method can you remember what was one of the differences between grammar translation and the direct method grammar translation written language in and out of the target language direct method sf1052: that's spoken nf0988: spoken language a shift of focus to spoken language and direct in what way was it direct sf1053: just in the target nf0988: right sf1053: mm nf0988: yes just in the target language no mother tongue support at all he talked about graded structural teaching with a grammar focus and sequence he talked about audiolingualism based upon which theory of learning audiolingualism ss: nf0988: where sf1054: listening first nf0988: sorry sf1054: listening first sf1055: nf0988: listening first and listening and sf1056: [laughter] nf0988: repeating listening and repeating listening and repeating based upon stimulus response sf1057: er behaviourism nf0988: behaviourism don't make mistakes let's just imitate correctly i'd like to look now with you at er communicative language teaching but just before i do that i'd like you to look at the diagram from Stern which is on page five of your handout 'cause i think it's quite a nice summary of what we're looking at here today and next week and i-, with namex in the weeks to come [cough] okay teaching strat-, it's divi-, he's divided it up he's talk about treatment options in language teaching different ways we can treat language teaching teaching strategies timing strategies social strategies we talked a little bit about social stategies today with who does most of the talking in the classroom is it the teacher or is it the learner people mentioned working in groups and pairs we haven't looked particularly at the individual learner but these are sort of different aspects of the social strategy of learning and teaching teaching strategies namex t-, looked at this crosslingual comparing languages similarities and differences between the target language and the mother tongue intralingual intracultural all done in the target language no reference at all to other languages that you can speak analytic and experiential which we're going to look at now analytic approach to language versus an experiential approach to language analytic objective formal and language-centred the what of language teaching versus experiential communicative functional message-centred participatory how how do we communicate the distinction that namex drew with you between learning and acquisition explicit learning which is logical and involves reasoning versus implicit acquisition which is intuitive and hopefully automatic and these are the dichotomies they're clines language teaching will be typically somewhere in the middle of all of these and next week we're going to be looking at receptive and expressive skills listening and reading versus speaking and writing so it's quite a nice diagram i think pulling together what's involved in language teaching timing strategies namex i think if i remember correctly said up to the age of six how many hours instruction does a child have in their mother tongue can anybody remember the figure i think it was i'll have to check my notes it was about ten-thousand i think a child has had about ten-thousand hours of language instruction by the age of six one to one very often with a parent or a carer er in a secondary education system how many hours do you think the average secondary school pupil gets of foreign language instruction between the ages of eleven and eighteen in a class of thirty or forty or fifty sf1058: about sixty nf0988: mm sf1058: maybe about sixty hours nf0988: sixty between eleven and eighteen sf1059: oh no it's a bit more than that nf0988: no i h-, hope it's a bit more than that i'd be a-, sf1059: yeah think so sf1060: nf0988: probably no more than a th-, a thousand okay so that in their whole years of secondary education when okay you're cognitively more developed than a child learning their mother tongue you're also er fluent in another language which a child learning their mother tongue is not but you are learning in a very different context classroom with lots of other people and you might get if you're lucky about a thousand hours of instruction between the ages of eleven and eighteen if you are studying foreign languages throughout compare that with a child up to the age of six having about ten-thousand hours there is also this whole issue of small amounts of time versus large amounts of time that has all sorts of implications for what we teach and how we teach it if i've got twenty hours to teach my air traffic controllers the basic er linguistic things they will need to communicate i'm going to be very brutal about er what i do and very ruthless in determining the syllabus i'll have to be efficient if i've got a lot of time if i've got them for a couple of years on an intensive programme we've got time to be more relaxed and less focused perhaps so distribution of time also is it concentrated intensive compact is it immersion are you living in the country where the language is spoken are you attending a er a school in the country or is it distributed or extended is it drip-feed so a useful diagram i think that pulls together many of the factors we have to think about and i'd like you now to spend five minutes noting down what d-, you think are some of the other factors influencing syllabus design i've left a space for you on page five to note down factors that influence syllabus design if i said to you you've got to write a syllabus for teaching English to this group of learners what would you want to know about them what factors would influence your decision age could be one can you note down some more nf0988: and do do it together do talk about it it doesn't need to be done individually what factors would influence syllabus design so learners' age is one nf0988: ah there it is nf0988: okay let's see what we've got anybody like to give me some factors sf1061: age nf0988: age yeah sf1062: gender gender nf0988: gender sf1063: subject nf0988: what do you mean by subject sf1063: well the course nf0988: so you mean their needs sm1064: students nf0988: their ss: needs sf1063: me i mean the course of the syllabus nf0988: right but okay but subject sf1063: yeah nf0988: it could be foreign language sf1063: yeah nf0988: second language sf1063: yeah nf0988: special specific needs sf1065: mm sf1063: yeah nf0988: for example er English for business yeah okay thank you so what are their what are their needs the context yes any more sm1066: resources sf1067: their level nf0988: level sf1068: the level nf0988: [laughter] the l-, level of learners yeah thank you keep you er it's okay i can i can listen and write at the same time so do shout sm1066: resources nf0988: resources very important yes what resources sm1066: er human or er things like that nf0988: yeah human and sm1066: learners even nf0988: material sm1066: yeah nf0988: ah you say learners so what do you mean sm1066: well i mean a syllabus should be designed in some way that er you have er nf0988: okay so that's sort of we're getting at that here aren't we here learners yeah sf1069: nf0988: okay anything else about the learners we need to know sf1070: ability sm1071: nf0988: sorry sf1070: mental ability nf0988: mental ooh yes er shall we call it what was namex's term for it ss: nf0988: aptitude whatever that is language learning aptitude aptitude I-Q if you like ooh risky yes okay but yes sf1072: [cough] time nf0988: mm sf1072: time nf0988: time yes very important how much time you've got a week a month a year ten years sf1073: the environment nf0988: what do you mean by the environment sf1073: er their culture or the whatever classroom whatever it is nf0988: okay so the learners' er cultural sf1073: background nf0988: background sf1073: yeah nf0988: and that is sort of at a you mean at a sort of a national level or ethnic level but also classroom the there is a also clo-, classroom culture have they come out of what do they expect from the teacher what do they expect from learning and teaching yeah from school sf1074: their experience with languages nf0988: right okay their language learning experience how many languages do they speak and how successfully yeah sf1075: how recent they how recently they've been taught nf0988: okay sf1076: nf0988: so it's languages proficiency how recently the time scale yes has it been twenty years since they set foot in a language classroom or are they fresh off the plane from another one yeah sf1076: er whether you're teaching mixed groups in the target language country mixed groups in their own country nf0988: yes so the context are you are you there or are you here are you teaching it in their country or are you teaching it here so is it E-S E-F-L or is it E- S-L and also i suppose if it's E-S-L sorry E-F-L you or or well either of them actually the nationality of the students or more importantly their L- one how may different L-ones have you got mother tongues in the group yep anything else sf1077: subject goal nf0988: okay sf1077: it's for a specific kind of examination at the end of it or nf0988: yes learners' goals motivation why are they doing it get more money find a partner er [laughter] get a new life find a job pass the time why are they doing it sf1078: nf0988: mm sf1078: nf0988: interests learners' interests very important what are they interested in so yes so i think we can divide these up into various categories one is the learners questions such as who are they what's their previous language learning experience in the target language also in other foreign languages what do they think about teaching and learning what are their concepts what does a classroom mean for them what does language learning mean for them because if you ask them to do something very new they may reject it as it may not look like proper teaching so what methods of teaching have they experienced before what methods do they like what methods will alienate them students from some cultures if you put them into groups and say talk will run a mile they don't want to do it other cultures you say get into groups and talk and you can't shut them up [laughter] and i'm not identifying the cultures right er motivation and attitude yes very important towards the target language group do they want to become part of it are they hostile towards it how do they feel what's their motivation is it instrumental or integrative do they want to join in or do they just want to use the language for something else and then go home their culture their values intact er or are they just neutral they just have no particular motivation age gender young old mixed age within the class that's quite a challenge often or are they all more or less the same age aptitude we've talked about are they good learners do they see themselves as good learners more to the point or do they see themselves as false beginners as failed learners or are they mixed ability their needs it's very ea-, it's much easier if their needs are specific if you know why they are learning if you're in a TENOR situation it's much more challenging what's the if you know their needs what's the target setting what context will they need English for they're going to be a hotel reception clerk for example what is their role going to be in that context are they going to be a customer a client a boss whatever who are they going to use the language with colleagues friends superiors inferiors and what are the content areas going to be what do you have to teach them what language do they need to know what vocabulary domains do they need to learn and the language skills do they need reading and writing as well or do they just need speaking and listening or do they need a mixture and what level of competence for reading and writing speaking and listening how good do they have to be also what's the exam going to be at the end i always ask that what's the exam at the end because the exam at the end has a huge impact on what you can do in the classroom 'cause if you try going in and not teaching summary writing when summary writing is on the syllabus for the exam you'll have a riot on your hands what's the language of the syllabus is it similar to their mother tongue or different is it the same script or different that's important and this very important point about resources human resources who are the other teachers and what materials do you have and what equipment do you have and also outside all of that there are the cultural political economic factors that impact on everything we do as teachers in any context i'm going to finish now by talking a little bit about communicative language teaching i'm aware that namex looked a-, quickly at most of the other methods of language teaching but communicative language teaching he didn't actually get on to so if you can find your handout i've taken Stern's division of communicative language teaching i-, into two he talked about analytical approaches and non-analytical experiential approaches we'll probably just finish the first one today and move on to the second one next time communicative language teaching it's a shift in focus from language to from language usage to use so not what do you say but how do you say it and the first distinction here was analytic the functional approach looking at language trying to see instead of looking at the grammar of the language the vocabulary of the language trying to see the social and environmental context in which people used language and the influence here of semantics speech act theory what we know about how people use language to do things and what we know from discourse analysis moving away from looking at sentences words and sentences to whole pieces of discourse a whole dialogue a whole newspaper article a whole letter rather than focusing in at the sentence level which is what people had done before so very important important names here David Wilkins formerly of this parish or still of this parish actually professor at namex nineteen-seventy-six publishing his concept of a notional syllabus it's on your bibliography David Wilkins The Notional Syllabuses notions being things like space time distance weight er concepts such as that but what caught on much more was the idea of functions so you might have a notion which would be time but the function would be asking the time or telling the time little hint when you're looking for functions they always have I-N-G at the end asking for information telling the time complaining requesting et cetera et cetera so moving in nineteen-seventy-six and the Council of Europe van Eyck working in the nineteen-seventies early eighties the Council of Europe wanting to look at modern language teaching across Europe so you can't do it on a language by language basis we're not interested in the differences at the grammatical and linguistic level trying to look at what language does so in all languages people complain in all languages people ask er for information in all languages people invite or criticize or whatever so actually a very useful framework for thinking about language at a level above individual languages and this concept of usage and use from Henry Widdowson coming in at about the same time so the nineteen- seventies a very important time for language teaching moving away from behaviourism moving away from grammar translation and the direct method coming in but looking not at individual utterances but language in context a socio logical perspective on it all context influencing meanings and the important notion of communicative competence coming in at this time and the names communicative competence the underlying communicative competence and the names Canale and Swain i'm giving you this detail in case you want to explore it for a for an assignment or an exam question and there are references on the bibliography but i'm also aware ti-, we've got two minutes left so i'm also pushing on quite h-, quite fast so that saying something like it's five past eleven at the beginning of this lecture could say if i walk into the room we're due to start at eleven and i say it's five past eleven what am i doing am i telling the time no i'm not am i we've all got a clock we all know by saying it's five past eleven i'm not showing my linguistic aptitude and my ability to read clocks [laughter] and tell the time what am i doing sf1079: to communicate sf1080: making a point that someone's late nf0988: i'm making a point that that people are late perhaps sf1081: nf0988: i'm making the point that i'm going to ss: to start nf0988: to start even though maybe not everybody is here and that late-comers come in er er under their own steam and i'm i'm actually indicating that i'm kicking off and i'm justifying it by saying it's five past eleven let's get going okay so that's what's understood by a functional approach people with communicative competence will understand that for what it is it's not telling the time it's actually er indicating commencement and justifying that commencement so context is very important and context includes participants who you are talking to and who is saying it if one of you if namex had said it's five past eleven it wouldn't be indicating we were about to start would it what would that be indicating sm1082: we're late nf0988: we're late starting it could be s-, i would take that as sm1083: complaint [laughter] nf0988: a complaint a criticism okay because of the nature of the relationship and if a student says to a lecturer at a lecture that's supposed to have started at eleven it's five past eleven it's a criticism it's saying get a move on time to start sm1083: it's one o'clock nf0988: sorry sm1083: it's one o'clock nf0988: it's [laughter] and it's now ten to one [laughter] so it's definitely sm1083: that's a lie nf0988: yeah [laughter] yes yes the fact that he says it's one o'clock er again [laughter] we're not interested in time here he is telling me that his stomach is rumbling and [laughter] it's time for lunch and on that note i am going to stop [laughter] i'll be [laughter] i can take a hint sm1083: sorry nf0988: i will please could you bring this this with you next time i'll see you next next Wednesday same time same place