Teaching
Important instructions and guiding the students in the classroom situation is called “Teaching”. In wider perspective it implies the interaction between the teacher and the taught, preparation and planning of the lessons, collecting necessary “teaching ads” and also such activities as evaluation of the instruction and the communication.
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Teaching is a very comprehensive term. It includes as mentioned above, most the activities taking place in the classroom and the school and many other activities, which are performed at home. We can say that duration of the teaching period, number of students, kinds of teaching activities and interaction between the teacher and the students are different aspects of teaching.
Successful Teaching
Researches on teaching show that a learning atmosphere, which follows teacher’s instruction is comparatively more successful and show better results. Here the students remain busy. The teacher selects learning activities. He explains the objectives of the lesson and discusses them with the students. He, to prepare the atmosphere along with the objectives, also presents a brief summary of the lesson.
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The following activities by the teacher are positively related to students’ achievement.
- Informing about the important parts of the lesson.
- Presenting summary of the different parts of the lesson.
- Explaining the relationship of the one part of the lesson with the other parts.
- At the end giving the summary of the whole lesson.
Interaction between the teacher and the students in the form of asking questions and giving answers also positively affects the achievements level of the students. In the beginning of the learning process the teacher explains some concept or problem. He then asks questions and encourages the students for responding to his questions about that concept.
APPROACH, METHOD AND TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING
The aim of good teacher is effective teaching. It yields good results and creates understanding of new concepts. It is well planned and systematic. It follows some specific method and employs the best available techniques.
For becoming a good teacher, one is curious to know what methods are available and what the best techniques are. The question also arises whether there is some difference between an approach, method and technique. First, let us see what a method is!
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APPROACH
An approach is set of theories or principles that a teacher may have in mind about the philosophy of language learning and teaching.
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METHOD
A method is a general process of creating interaction between the subject matter offered by the school and the students. It has an established sequence of doing something. We can say that.
- A method is a planed effort;
- It has an established sequence;
- It has also an established relationship among different parts;
- It is the way of inducing interaction between the subject matter and the students.
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TECHNIQUE
A technique means one single procedure used in a classroom. It is particular trickle/strategy or device, used to achieve an immediate result. A method will consist of a number of techniques.
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In contrasts to the method, a technique is a very limited activity, which although induces reaction but does not go further in a continuum. Numerous techniques can be used in a teaching method. According to the dictionary of Education, technique is a way of doing things, which can be repeated again and again.
A technique can be a process of doing things. It can be a way of manipulating things, or it can be procedure of completing some work. A teacher usually uses the following kinds of teaching techniques during his lesson:
- Achievement tests
- Using exercise books
- Using bulletin board
- Using questions
- Home work
- Use of library
- Use of A.V aids
- Using individual and group competitions
During his lesson the teacher frequently asks questions, sometimes to test students’ previous knowledge, sometimes to relate different parts of the lesson with each other and sometimes to know whether he has successfully conveyed the message. Similar the other techniques are also used to impart some kind of information.
I think now you understand that an approach and a method and a technique are quite different things. We can say that an approach is a set of theories or principles and a method is a whole and a technique is a part. The whole consists of many such parts. A method is planned before hand but the uses of a technique are seldom planned.
Teaching Methods
A teaching method is a planned approach for communicating knowledge or something. There are different teaching methods for teaching different subjects. The nature of the method changes with the nature of the message, Which is to be conveyed. As the nature of concepts and messages of a language is different from, for example, those of physical science, therefore, different teaching methods will be used for teaching a language and teaching physical sciences.
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In a language stress is always on the parts of speech and the structure. The teacher starts from nouns of daily use in combination with very simple structure, but the approach is often different with different teachers. Some teachers like formalist approach while the others prefer activist ones.
FORMALIST APPROACH
In the formalist approach the emphasis is on forms. The teacher teaches the rules of the language and their applications in every detail, and expects that by studying the rules, the students will master the language. This approach relies on deductive form of teaching moving from the statements of the rules to their application in the examples.
ACTIVIST APPROACH
No doubt that many practicing teachers of the modern languages follow the formalist approach because it is easy to follow for the teacher, but there have always been protests in favor of some living method appropriate for teaching a living language.
The activist approach is a functional approach to the structure of the language. The student is first taught what is most useful and most applicable. The rare and exceptional things are left for later stages. It familiarizes the students first with forms of the language used for general communication in speech.
approach is often different with different teachers. Some teachers like formalist approach while the others prefer activist ones.
APPROPRIATE APPROACH
The effectiveness of all teaching methods is relative to situation in which they are being taught. Every method has its own objectives. And a good teacher should first know the objectives of the method he wants to follow. He should further know whether the objectives of the method correspond to the objectives of his lesson.
In teaching methodology you will come to know that every lesson has its own objectives and the teaching plan is developed in such a way that these objectives are fully achieved. The selection of teaching method too is based on these objectives.
The techniques should be encouraging and interesting for students of all levels-weak, mediocre and intelligent. They should also allow the teacher to carry out his full days’ teaching load by following these techniques.
ORAL PRACTICE
What ever the method one may adopt, one thing, which seems necessary to follow is, the oral practice. This helps the students learn correct pronunciation. In many developing countries like Pakistan today very little attention is being paid to this aspect of language learning. It may be due to large classes and comparatively very small periods. But the result is that our students are extremely poor in spoken language and also very poor in written language.
For teaching correct language it is necessary that the teacher himself should have correct pronunciation as well as mastery over the language skills.
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Teaching oral language should start from nouns of daily use with very simple structure as boy, girl, chair, table, house, man, woman, pen, pencil, inkpot etc. “this is, that is”, are the simplest structures which can be used with these nouns to make them meaningful. on in the examples.
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