LINGUIST List 12.2586

Wed Oct 17 2001

Review: Davies & Pearse, Success in English Teaching

Editor for this issue: Terence Langendoen <terrylinguistlist.org>

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  • Luz Vasquez, Review of Davies & Pearse, Success in English Teaching

    Message 1: Review of Davies & Pearse, Success in English Teaching

     Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 11:25:43 -0400
    From: Luz Vasquez <luzmarinavehotmail.com>
    Subject: Review of Davies & Pearse, Success in English Teaching


    Davies, Paul M., and Eric Pearse (2000) Success in English Teaching. Oxford University Press, paperback ISBN 0-19-442171-6, xiv+221pp, Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers.

    Luz M. Vasquez, Doctoral Program in Applied Linguistics, Boston University

    GENERAL OVERVIEW 'Success in English Teaching' is a handbook specifically aimed at teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), although teachers of English as Second Language (ESL) as well as other language teachers can certainly benefit from it. The book examines various significant aspects of language teaching, from how and when to teach discrete English skills to how to design syllabi, how to handle evaluation, and how to work with an appropriate coursebook, to how to best take into account learners' needs and motivation. The book is divided into two main sections, the first one focusing on the actual classroom (chapters 1 through 6), and the second examining broader aspects in language teaching such as planning and evaluation (chapters 7 through 12). Additionally, a very practical glossary is provided which includes comprehensible definitions of all crucial terms used throughout the text. At the end of the book, the authors also provide a useful list of books for further reading, broken down into the following sections: general background and methodology texts, texts about teaching different language skills, testing and evaluation texts, classroom planning and managing texts, and texts about approaches to teaching English.

    CONTENT DESCRIPTION Although quite short (less than two pages), the introduction very clearly states who the book is addressed to, its purpose, and its contents; it also presents suggestions on how to use the book. All chapters begin with a concise introduction which describes what is to be addressed next. Throughout, the authors provide insightful questions and ideas that make the reader reflect on what is being addressed, as well as succinct and useful teaching ideas and examples of the various skills and teaching topics looked at. Each chapter concludes with a very precise summary, followed by a section referred to by the authors as projects, which encourage readers to put into practice the material contained in that particular chapter.

    Chapter 1: A general Approach to teaching English The first chapter introduces the section one of the book, which focuses on techniques for developing different language skills. In this chapter, the authors introduce their general approach to teaching English, which describes success in terms of learners' ability to use English in real communication; communication should be the starting point as well as the main goal of any English class, although short- term goals that focus on language form can certainly be used. Every item presented in class should be part of a cycle that includes presentation, practice, and production, and English should be the language used in all classes, even at beginning levels. Here, Davies and Pearse insist that clear goals are essential for successful English teaching and these ought to be clear to both, teachers and learners. The chapter includes concise suggestions for successfully emphasizing communication in the classroom such as the use of basic classroom routines from the start, the use of actions, realia (real objects), gestures, paraphrasing, translation and, most importantly, consistency. A final piece of advice given is that within each department, teachers ought to agree about their principles, objectives, and methodologies.

    Chapter 2: Presenting new language items This chapter offers concrete suggestions for how to present new vocabulary; learners need to not only memorize new words but also be able to use them actively. According to Davies and Pearse, learning a new item includes learning its meaning, use in communication, pronunciation, spelling, and grammatical form and function. The authors emphasize that new items are not learned simply after having been presented or practiced a few times; new words should be presented in a context, with key models, and by checking the learner's understanding. New vocabulary should be introduced orally, and writing should to be presented last as a means to clarify and consolidate oral presentation and practice.

    Chapter 3: Organizing language practice Moving forward along the language teaching/learning continuum, here Davis and Pearse provide ideas on how to organize language practice of vocabulary items already introduced. According to them, practice of new items allows for the automatic recognition, pronunciation, and use of those new vocabulary, and context should be used as reinforcement. In addition, the authors discuss error correction and advocate communicative fluency where more errors are allowed and the focus is on communication. Formal accuracy, in contrast, implies avoiding errors. Whether focusing on form or on function accuracy, teachers should avoid interrupting learners' flow of communication when correcting errors, and learners should be encouraged to self-correct or to correct one another (peer correction) instead of only relying on teacher-correction (see Corder, 1967 and Lyster & Ranta, 1997 for similar viewpoints). Lastly, the authors highly recommend monitoring the students and taking note of important errors that affect the class as a whole.

    Chapter 4: Handling vocabulary This chapter focuses on the importance vocabulary has in communication. Concrete ways of combining the meaning, pronunciation, grammatical properties, and use of new vocabulary items are presented. Vocabulary meaning can be presented by using gestures, mime, antonyms, synonyms, and context, while listening, repetition, and feedback are good ways to emphasizing pronunciation. Additionally, learners should also have knowledge about the form of new vocabulary items --their grammatical properties. The authors further emphasize that true acquisition of new words can only be achieved through use, that is, by being exposed to frequent communication, plenty of reading, and specific practice activities such as brainstorming, guessing, labeling, and classifying scrambled words. Finally, the use of real objects, pictures, definitions, demonstrations, and translation --which should be used as a last resort, are recommended for teaching new vocabulary.

    Chapter 5: Developing spoken communication skills This chapter compares communication inside and outside the classroom, and it advocates for making classroom communication more like outside communication. Characteristics of natural communication in the classroom can be achieved by promoting spontaneous and realistic communication, by focusing on what is being communicated, not on how it is communicated, and by using varied grammatical structures as well as a large vocabulary. Additionally, English ought to be established as the main classroom language, and teachers need to use interesting topics and stimulating activities to get their students' interest. Moreover, learners should be supported and encouraged to communicate instead of focusing on form, although in form accuracy practice teachers might choose to focus on a particular structure. Another important suggestion presented is that teachers take advantage of events and changes inside and outside the classroom, so that classroom practice resembles real communication. The lessons should also include potentially interesting listening and reading texts, role-plays, and simulations, so as to engage the students in communicative practice. Furthermore, listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be integrated in the classroom in the same way as they are integrated in natural settings. To reinforce speaking skills, the authors recommend creating a relaxed classroom atmosphere and exposing the learners to plenty of naturally pronounced speech. Listening comprehension should be done in three stages, pre-listening, while listening, and post- listening exercises.

    Chapter 6: Developing written communication skills The chapter presents a contrast between spoken and written language and offers general suggestions on how to develop reading comprehension and writing skills. The authors explain that written language is more grammatically complete than spoken language; while the former relies on language itself to communicate meaning, the latter uses gestures, tone of voice, and context. Additionally, writing activities allow more time for editing and correction than do speaking activities. Similarly, in listening practice the text is temporary, while in reading the text is permanently on the page. Davies and Pearse present a reading comprehension model where the reader starts out with certain expectations and ideas about the reading based on experience, then meaningful segments in the text are recognized and the reader predicts what will come next. They also examine two main types of reading, skimming (quickly looking through a text in order to get a general idea) and scanning (looking through a text with the purpose of finding specific information). The chapter further promotes the use of pre-, while-, and post-reading activities and includes examples on how to apply such activities. It is also suggested that teachers encourage reading outside the classroom as much as possible as a way to expand the learners' vocabulary and to consolidate their grammar. Writing should be seen as a means of achieving effective communication, not just as producing perfectly grammatical sentences. Finally, once again, Davies and Pearse call attention to integrating all language skills.

    Chapter 7: Review and remedial work This chapter marks the beginning of section two, where the authors go a step beyond the teaching of specific language skills to addressing non-methodological aspects that are also essential in language teaching. The chapter highlights the importance of using review and remedial work in English classes as a way to reactivate, consolidate, and clarify language items and structures previously presented. It is argued that review and remedial work are necessary in English classes because learners usually receive insufficient practice compared to natural settings. Errors should be seen as part of the language-learning process as nobody learns a foreign language without making errors. However, errors do require remedial work, that is, activities designed to help learners overcome particular errors, especially those involving possible fossilization. Nonetheless, classroom activities should focus on ideas and not on language itself so that learners can truly show their knowledge of the language. The authors provide several review and remedial activities and suggest that review activities be used regularly and based on the students' proficiency levels and needs, while remedial work should be applied as needed. It is also suggested that teachers treat individual and general errors differently; while group errors should be dealt with in class, individual errors should not.

    Chapter 8: Planning and managing classes This chapter attends to both short and long-term course planning. While syllabus design constitutes long-term planning, short-term planning involves weekly work plans as well as individual lesson plans. Normally, courses are based on a syllabus, which states the objectives of the course and tells teachers what to teach and how to teach it. The syllabus might be designed to provide items and activities for up to one year, and it constitutes the starting point for specific lesson plans, while work plans usually break down into actual lesson plans. Both syllabi and work plans should be based on the goals and methodological approach in the syllabus. The authors highly advocate syllabi that allow for constant revision and integration of skills. Additionally, they recommend that lessons include group work. The chapter includes a sample lesson plan and specific techniques to promote group work. Another recommendation is that teaching materials be based on class objectives and on learners' needs, interests, and abilities. Furthermore, the chapter presents several hints on class management such as ways to get the students' attention and participation, managing pair and groupwork, giving and checking instructions, teachers and learners' roles in the classroom, and handling discipline.

    Chapter 9: Working with a textbook Depending on teachers' experience and training, amount of work, and institutional policies, teachers might use the coursebook differently. While some teachers might use the coursebook as the actual course, others might use it as the syllabus and main source of materials by complementing it; yet, others might only use it as a complementary resource. Besides constituting the syllabus, coursebooks might include language presentation material such as visuals, printed models of language, and audio- and video-recorded materials. They might also include language practice materials, pronunciation materials, grammar summaries, supplementary materials, review and clarification materials, and tests. However, the authors emphasize that it is only the teacher who can adapt activities according to the learners' needs and interests, bring situations to life, explain and/or demonstrate activities and tasks, organize the manner of classroom interaction, and monitor and help learners. Furthermore, teachers should be critical of the coursebooks and these should mainly complement the teacher's own ideas. Concrete ideas on how to take advantage of the various resources provided in coursebooks, as well as hints on how to select an appropriate coursebook, are provided. Lastly, the authors advocate lesson planning, even when using a coursebook.

    Chapter 10: Teaching aids and materials According to Davies and Pearse, it is more significant to be able to be creative, skilled, and organized, than to have access to very sophisticated resources. They provide simple and clear hints on how to best make use of basic classroom resources such as the board. In addition, they recommend the use of wall-charts, realia, cue-cards, mime and gestures, as well as audio-visual materials in teaching and give concrete examples of how to make effective use of such materials. Nonetheless, the authors highlight the importance of using specific materials only when a clear and positive purpose has been established, not just as a way to use up time.

    Chapter 11: Testing and evaluation This chapter highlights the relationship and differences between teaching, testing, and evaluation. They suggest that teaching should not become a form of continuous testing; yet, teachers should constantly evaluate the learners' progress as well as their own teaching. A contrast between testing and evaluation is presented. While evaluation is a more general notion and teachers can evaluate teaching itself, teaching materials, the learning process, and actual tests, tests are designed for specific purposes, and they provide precise tasks with explicit objectives. The chapter also describes the role of the five most commonly used test types; placement tests, diagnostic tests, progress tests, course tests, and proficiency tests. Furthermore, two important concepts closely related to testing and evaluation, namely, validity and reliability are described. The authors suggest that good test-writers should try to maintain a balance between validity (tasks and materials that reflect what has been covered in class) and reliability (unambiguous and objective tasks), and they provide samples contrasting both types of tests. Davies and Pearse also classify tests according to objectivity-subjectivity, recognition-production, or language-communication scales, and they recommend a balance between these scales so that tests are reliable and valid.

    Chapter 12: Development in teaching English This last chapter constitutes a historical analysis of the different approaches and techniques designed for teaching English from the mid- nineteenth century to present day. It describes the principles, activities, and techniques used in each approach. While the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Situational Language Teaching approach, and the Audiolingual Method, focus on memorization and grammar instruction, the Silent Way, Total Physical Response, Suggestopedia, Community Language Learning, and the Natural Approach all surface as alternative methods. Communicative Language Learning is the approach most commonly used nowadays, and it conceives of language as a system of communication whose aim is to convey messages in different contexts. The authors suggest an approach they refer to as The Course Design Approach, whose philosophy is that teachers should take into account the learners' interests, learning styles, and the learners' needs before planning their lessons. In other words, although they advocate a communicative approach for teaching English, their approach simply stresses the need to see the learner as the central key of the teaching process. An important suggestion also made is that English teachers need to keep updated by becoming part of self-development, co-operative development, and formal development programs. Self- development activities include constant reflection, diary writing, recording lessons, and reading, while co-operative development techniques involve sharing with colleagues and peer observation, and formal development refers to in- service training programs, conferences, seminars, and short courses on teaching.

    DISCUSSION 'Success in English Teaching' can be very useful not only to new English teachers, but also to experienced EFL/ESL teachers and to teachers of other languages. It is a basic handbook that provides teachers with guidance and advice on how to handle key aspects in communicative language teaching. It goes beyond the methods and contents of ESL instruction to addressing other significant issues such as error correction, syllabus design and lesson planning, coursebook selection, use of teaching materials, and finally, how and when to evaluate students' progress as well as the teaching process itself. The book provides useful hints and illustrations on how to put into practice the issues at hand. The book is an excellent reference book that all ESL/EFL teachers should have on their bookshelves, as it offers an array of ideas concerning how to address the various issues involved in language teaching. The book is easy to follow and all the suggestions provided are practical and convenient.

    Nonetheless, the suggestions supplied are somewhat general, as concrete exercises for teaching discrete aspects of pronunciation, reading, and writing are lacking (see Ur, 1996 and Harmer, 2001 for a comparison). Additionally, the approach emphasized throughout is communicative in essence, highly advocating for integrating language skills such as reading, writing, listening, and speaking. However, the authors themselves admit that their approach is somewhat idealistic and should therefore be adapted to specific situations. This task would be difficult in settings where the main goal might be pure translation or grammatical accuracy, as in TOEFL preparation courses or courses whose objective is to prepare students to be able to read technical articles and books (medicine, computer sciences, aviation, commerce, chemistry, etc.) In such settings, 'Success in English Teaching' would provide little assistance.

    In sum, the book is of unquestionable benefit to new English teachers who could use it as a starting point or as a complement to their coursebook. As for more experienced English teachers, the book can be a very good reminder of the important questions to always keep in mind when designing and planning for communicative English classes.

    REFERENCES Corder, S.P., 1967. The significance of learners' errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161-170.

    Harmer, H. 2001. The practice of English language teaching. Third Edition. Pearson Education Limited.

    Lyster, R. & Ranta, L., 1997. Corrective feedback and learner uptake: negotiation of form in communicative classrooms. Studies in Second Language Acquisition,19, 37-66.

    Ur, P., 1996. Course in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.

    BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH I am mainly interested in the acquisition/teaching of a second or foreign language as well as on child simultaneous bilingual language acquisition. I have experience in teaching ESL and EFL, and have worked on language-mixing in simultaneous bilingual children (English/Spanish). Currently, I am working on the development of language parameters in bilingual children, and also on error correction/negative evidence in ESL classrooms. I have a B.A. in TESOL from Saint Michael's College, Vermont, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Boston University.