The process of learning the English language has been a subject of extensive research and discussion in the field of education. Various theories, approaches, and methods have been developed over the years to understand how children and adults acquire language skills and how educators can effectively teach English. This article explores prominent theories of language learning, including Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism, Social-constructivism, Krashen’s monitor, and Acculturation. Additionally, It sheds lights on different approaches to teaching English, such as the Standards-Based Approach, Competency-Based Approach, Communicative Approach, Content-Based Approach, and the Eclectic Approach. Furthermore, the article examines former methods of learning the English language, ranging from the traditional Grammatical Translation Method to innovative techniques like Total Physical Response and Suggestopedia. By delving into these theories, approaches, and methods, educators gain valuable insights into the diverse and evolving landscape of English language education, allowing them to make informed decisions in the classroom.
1- Theories of learning the English language
In teaching, there are some theories that explain how children or adults learn or how the process of teaching is done. Here are some of them:
a)- Behaviorism :
it is founded by B.F Skinner. According to this theory, the process of learning is based on imitation. Namely, the learners try to imitate how others pronounce words. For example, students try to imitate their teachers how they pronounce words and how they act… Another example, a baby imitates his parents and siblings in trying to say “mama, papa”, in this way a child learns words and tries to speak. Skinner claimed that learning is related to positive and negative reinforcement. For instance, if a student answers a question and a teacher responds by “that’s good, excellent”, be sure that the student will try to make all his/her efforts to answer next time and hear those encouraging words.
b)- Cognitivism :
it is founded by Canny. It comes as a reaction to the behaviorist thoughts, which ignores Human’s innate ability to acquire the language.. Cognitivism believes that humans are creative not just imitative. Learners are viewed as very active participants in the process of learning. This theory emphasizes the idea of making knowledge meaningful and helping learners to organize and relate the new information to the existing knowledge in memory. The best way to apply this theory is to ask questions to help students refine their thinking.
c)- Constructivism :
it is founded by Piaget. It depends on self-evident as people grow up and exposed to the world and to the languages, they improve their linguistic knowledge. Experiences and interaction with others is the first way of learning according to this theory.
d)- Social-constructivism:
it is founded by Vygotsky. The process of learning is based on interacting with people who know the language and through engaging within the society.
e)- Krashen’s monitor:
founded by Stephen Krashen. The language is acquired through natural communication with others. Most of us learn languages through this theory. The idea is that we are learning languages through speaking and hearing to others without going to school.
f)- Acculturation:
founded by John Schumann. Learning languages according to this theory is through adapting to a new culture. For example; immigrants from different countries when they come to a certain country, they learn the new language through engaging within that culture.
2- Approaches of learning the English language:
a- Standards Based Approach:
Standards-Based Approach addressed what students should know and be able to do and demonstrate at the end of the process of the language study. There are three types of standards:
- Content standards: it is a statement about what learners should know and be able to do with English.
- Performance standards: shows how the learners have achieved the standards targeted.
- Proficiency standards: tell us how learners should perform.
Standards Based Approach “SBA “is concerned with developing the following five areas C5:
1- Communication: learners will communicate in both oral and written forms, understand and interpret both oral and written messages to various audiences for a variety of purposes. The three modes of communication are interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational communication.
2- Culture: learners will gain a deeper understanding of their culture and the target culture in terms of their perspectives (ideas, attitudes, etc.), practices, and products like books, laws, music.
3- Connections: learners will make connections with other subject areas such as history, Arabic…
4) Comparison: learners will gain awareness of cross-cultural similarities and differences in culture that exist between the target culture and language and their own through comparing.
5) Communities: learners will extend their learning experiences from the EFL classroom to the outside world through activities such as the use of the internet.
Some characteristics of standards based classroom:
- Classroom climates are characterized by respectful behaviors, routines.
- The teacher ensures that all the components of the lesson (learning activities, assessments, homework) contribute to the lesson objectives and to the student’s mastery of the standards.
b- Competency based approach:
This approach is adopted for secondary school. It focuses on the competencies of students; it aims at teaching and mastering one skill then moving to another skill. For example, In the Moroccan educational system, English is taught to… to the students of 14, 13 years old. So they need to know the very basics of the English language like Alphabets and how to great each other and so on before moving to learn how to write complete sentences and speak correctly.
c- Communicative Approach:
This can be seen as the most preferable Approach for the majority of teachers in Morocco. It is a learner-centered approach because it gives the chance to the learners to learn by themselves, to involve in the process of learning. This approach helps the learner to develop not only linguistic competence but also communicative skills as to what to say, how to say, when to say and where in order to satisfy his daily needs as a larger aim. In this approach fluency and accuracy are equally important.
The teacher here is a co-participant not that of an authoritarian master. The teacher should provide all the recourses necessary for communication to be effective in every context.
d- Content Based Approach:
The students here are active, not passive learners. They are learning through being active, participating within the process of learning. Here using the target language in the process of learning is necessary.
e- Eclectic approach:
It combines various approaches and methodologies to teach language depending on the aims of the lesson and the abilities of the learners. Personally, I prefer this approach.
3) – Former Methods of Learning English Language:
a) – The grammatical translation method:
Students spend a lot of time reading texts and translating them, doing exercises, tests, writing essays. There is no focus on communication.
b) -The Audio Lingual Method:
This method aims to develop listening and speaking skills through listening to dialogues with repetitions and drilling but with little or no teacher explanation. It rejects the use of the mother tongue.
c) – Communicative language teaching (CLT):
It is based on that learners will learn best if they participate in meaningful communication.
Teachers try to give as much as possible of communicative tasks to students in order to practice communication
d) -Total physical response:
Students listen to instructions from the teacher, understand them and do things in response.
e) – Community language learning:
It allows students to communicate in a genuine way than is typically possible in classroom. In other words, it focuses on making students able to use English language outside the classroom environment.
f) – The silent way:
It focuses on the idea that students talk more than the teacher in the teaching and learning process. It requires the learners to take active ownership of their language learning. And it considers students’ errors as natural.
g) -The direct method:
In this method no translation is allowed because learners have to think in the target language if they want to succeed in learning languages.
k) – Suggestopedia:
It has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be successful and help them overcome the barriers to learning. The teacher is the authority of the classroom that must be trusted and respected by the students. The native language translation is used to make the meaning clear.
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