This article is an attempt to distil the essence of what is involved in the effective teaching and learning of foreign languages. It follows on from earlier critiques by Alan Maley and Adrian Underhill, the main thrust of which has been that ELT has become over-reliant on the technical aspects of the process at the expense of the personal relationships and interactional skills which underlie all genuine learning.
Axioms are statements about beliefs based on observed facts and experience. Principles are then derivable from these axioms and they relate directly to action. We have paired each axiom with a related principle to make the connections clear in each case. We believe that both axioms and principles should underlie good practice in language teaching and, by close association, in language teacher education and training.
We have no comprehensive description of English (or any other language).
The 20th century saw enormous advances in the description of the English language: in grammatical analysis, phonological descriptions, lexical systematisation and in socio-linguistic understanding. Much of this progress can be attributed to the rapid development of computer corpora, deriving their data from authentic samples rather than from armchair speculation. This notwithstanding, we still do not have a unified and comprehensive description of the language – a language which is, in any case, in constant and rapid change. In the absence of such a description, all attempts to systematise the teaching of the language in textbooks or books about methodology are bound to be, at least partially, based on hunches, personal beliefs and preferences. The result has been that many teachers and textbooks still fall back on prescriptive rules which make it easier to teach and test grammar. This reduces language to a static object rather than the fluid and restless phenomenon that it really is.
However, we need to understand that there are vested interests at play in this reification of language. The textbook and examinations industries are enormously profitable, and they thrive on the notion that language can be brought to heel in ways that seem to make it digestible and assessable. Most school systems around the world buy into this ‘deceit’, mainly because it is convenient for English to be seen as a school subject with exams that have to be passed, rather than as a means of communication. Teachers and learners are, therefore, left with little choice but to fall in with the expectations of the system they work in.
Encourage your learners to observe and absorb language as it is, not as it should be.
Give your learners an opportunity to see what is happening in language at word, sentence and discourse level. In teaching, accommodate varieties of language and deviations from dubious rules, such as the ones relating to reported speech or conditional sentences. Let the learners notice and comment on similarities and differences between English and their mother tongue. As teachers, follow trends in language use, and learn how to make use of tools to help you to analyse texts, understand and work with spoken discourse and keep up with neologisms and language change.
If we had a comprehensive description of English, it would be so detailed and complex that it would not be teachable.
Any comprehensive description of English would need to be greatly simplified to make it usable as the basis for teaching. The collocational rules governing lexical choice are perhaps the clearest example of this. As Michael Hoey, among many others, has shown, there is a grammar of words which is vastly more complex, and co-text sensitive, than the relatively simple grammatical rules presented in most course materials. Grammar, since ancient times, has been an attempt to simplify and impose order on the glorious chaos and complexity of language. This complexity is not readily accessible to most teachers, let alone learners. Much of it remains inert knowledge – couched in almost incomprehensible language and terminology and tucked away in specialist academic publications. It is certainly not susceptible of direct instruction: it can only be acquired by exposure and use.
The difficulties are compounded by the fact that the default setting for languages is variation (geographical, class, age, genre, professional speciality, etc) and change (especially in the area of lexis). Language teaching, however, remains largely wedded to the idea of standardisation. Fortunately, lexicographers have, in recent years, been far more ready to accommodate neologisms in their new editions of dictionaries, and regional and national varieties of English are now common and readily accepted in the media and by many employers.
Learn to notice what is actually happening. And learn to listen empathetically.
This principle applies equally to everyone involved in education and teacher education. However, we are not automatically programmed to notice what is happening around us, or to listen actively, and with empathy, to what others tell us. As John Fanselow points out, good teaching is as much about listening as about speaking. This means that a good deal of responsibility falls on teachers to model these behaviours in the classroom, and on teacher educators to model them with their trainees.
If we take lesson observation as an area of focus, observers need to quieten down the noise in their heads and to leave any preconceived beliefs outside the door before entering a classroom to observe. Only by doing this can they really take in what is happening in the class in all its richness and complexity, thereby being able to see events from the multiple points of view that exist in every class. Once an observer has achieved that during the process of observation, they will be better placed to support the observed teacher empathetically when the post-lesson talk-down takes place.
We do not know enough about how we learn a foreign language to be able to prescribe in detail how it should be done.
The 20th century was a time of heated debate, speculation and inquiry into ‘the best method’ for teaching a foreign language. In spite of that, we are still no nearer a specification of ‘what works’. Views are still divided, sometimes acrimoniously so. As N S Prabhu pointed out in 1990, in the absence of a universally agreed set of teaching/learning principles and practices, individual preferences still play a major role in decisions about content, order and practices.
The prevailing metaphor for language teaching/learning is of a mountain with steps cut in the side. Learners climb towards the summit, one step at a time. But language learning is not linear: it is recursive, partial and proceeds by irregular fits and starts. An alternative, ecological metaphor would see language as a forest, constantly growing and changing shape, which can be endlessly explored by many pathways.
Use a wide variety of inputs and processes, including aesthetic elements.
Given that all learners are different, it makes sense to offer the widest possible range of inputs and processes. Just as learners differ in their learning styles and preferences, teachers need to vary their inputs so that no learner is left out. The most obvious example is the need for different stimuli in a lesson, whether this is visual, auditory or tactile. Younger children need movement, and it is quite possible to offer this in a language class. Listening and reading can be supported by photographs, cartoons or graphic images. Processes such as groupwork or pairwork probably need to be varied and explained to learners so that they understand when they should take responsibility and when they can expect the teacher to take the lead. A poem, a painting or a piece of music may unlock something unexpected in learners and may in turn lead to creative output from them. Regard language classes as a window on a wider world and as a part of a broad-spectrum view of education rather than a narrow subject-based course of study.
Learners are all different and do not learn in the same way.
Individual differences will always affect the efficacy of teaching programmes, since no single programme can address the particularities of all individuals in a learning group. Until recently, this has severely disadvantaged less academically-oriented learners, since, as Iain McGilchrist asserts, most teaching remains determinedly left-hemisphere dominant. This implies a responsive rather than a directive approach to teaching. Teachers are adults and authority figures, and it ought to be up to them to make the adjustments needed to cater for different learning preferences in their classes rather than expecting the learners to adjust to a teacher’s preferences and idiosyncrasies.
Offer maximum choice to learners.
Teachers and textbooks often railroad learners through lessons and assignments, maintaining a lockstep approach to teaching and learning. This is not comfortable for any learner, unless they exist in a state of total dependency. Offering choices as simple as deciding which written assignment to go for, or whether or not to respond to a question in class, empowers learners and helps them to develop autonomy as students and ultimately as citizens. Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all programme of materials and activities, we propose that wherever possible we encourage learners to make choices which best suit their learning styles and preferences. These choices can be in the matter of inputs and processes.
Teachers are also all different and teach in different ways.
Though this is equally obvious, it has been relatively less acted upon than learner differences. A recent publication by Alan Maley has drawn attention to the widely-differing pathways to teacher development through accounts of individual career histories. This is, of course, not to say that there are no common features. Teachers are also strongly influenced by the varying cultural systems in which they live and work. So there is no single ‘right’ way to teach. It is the teacher’s personal responsibility to discover the way which best suits their individual, intuitive understanding of how to proceed.
Try out different ways of teaching.
Experiment with different methods and techniques and find the ones that suit you and your learners best. Teaching is a very personal act, and in many ways it is an extension of your personality. You need to feel comfortable and good about yourself in the classroom. Your learners will tell you by their reactions what suits them best, and you will soon recognise this yourself. But don’t get stuck in a rut. You are in control in your classroom, and it is your responsibility to create the best possible conditions for your learners to learn.
Learners do not always learn what teachers teach.
Clearly, some learners learn most of what we teach, some learn almost none of it, and many learn things we have not taught. In short, they learn what they want to learn and when they want to learn it. They are selective and discriminating in their decisions about learning, and teachers are seldom privy to the criteria that learners use to make these decisions. And learners themselves may not be aware of why they react as they do. But the axiom ‘Input does not equal intake’ is surely one which merits our attention. This axiom is in many ways the most important one of all, and we have derived a number of principles from it.
Do not explain what your learners can work out for themselves.
As teachers, we are often over-enthusiastic about ‘telling’ and ‘explaining’, rather than supporting our learners in working things out for themselves, which is the essence of discovery learning and, in language pedagogy, of an inductive approach to grammar and other formal features of language. When learners are given time and space to work things out for themselves, they think more deeply and their learning is also likely to be deeper and longer-lasting. Caleb Gattegno refers to this as learners developing ‘inner criteria’. After all, it is the learners who do the learning, not the teacher, so they need to take responsibility for their learning from the outset.
Do not over-plan or over-teach: leave room for learning, leave room for silence.
The notion of learning space is a real one. The persistent sound of a teacher’s voice or a teacher’s need to plough on, regardless of whether learning is taking place, can crowd the learners’ psychological space to such an extent that they simply switch off and retreat into their own minds. So, if you ask a good question that makes the learners think, let it hang in the air for a while so that they can consider before they are asked for an answer. If you notice blank expressions around the classroom, take note and re-engage the learners by asking a question or checking their understanding.
Wu wei is the Taoist term for living in a state of alignment with the flow of life. It means to respond effortlessly to the needs of any situation without resorting to struggle and force. Like a carpenter or wood-carver, the teacher needs to work with the grain of the wood to achieve effortless effort.
Use what the learners know, and start from where they are.
Learners of all ages already know a lot about language as communication when they start to learn a foreign language. They can use their mother tongue to ask and answer questions, to persuade, to plead, to explain – in short, to express themselves in all sorts of subtle and differentiated ways. Yet teachers and textbooks often ignore this simple reality and insist on infantilising their learners and making them start again from zero, as though they were empty vessels. Teachers should never forget what it’s like to be a learner. Nor should they ever underestimate their learners’ capabilities and creativity.
The same thing applies in teacher training and education. New teacher trainees bring thousands of hours of classroom experience as learners to the programme they are embarking on, and a practising teacher brings the sum total of their professional experience to an in-service course. Teacher educators need to find out about these valuable inner resources and to allow them to be deployed in the shared experience they offer on their courses. Nobody enjoys being made to feel small, and yet that is what happens too often in classrooms and training situations all over the world.
Be flexible. This means learning to react spontaneously to the unexpected and to turn it to advantage.
If we accept that learning is unpredictable, and if we adopt a responsive rather than a directive approach to the way we teach, it may be counter-productive to lay down rigidly fixed learning objectives. Rather, we need to become aware of what our learners may be learning and to build on that progressively, filling in any gaps as we go. At the macro-level, this might involve using a posteriori checklists rather than a priori syllabuses. At the micro-level and in real time, as Adrian Underhill points out, it implies exploiting unexpected classroom moments in positive ways.
Use routines, but constantly look for ways of breaking them.
Routines are essential, both to give a sense of reliability and reassurance (to teachers as well as learners) and to save time. But routines can also become restraints on allowing learning to take its own direction. Teachers need to challenge themselves to find new ways of doing old things. Many learners welcome routines, but they can become too comfortable and too predictable. Think of different ways of starting a lesson, perhaps through learner production rather than teacher input, and of ending a lesson, perhaps by soliciting feedback rather than setting homework. Don’t use old lesson plans from last year; instead, spend time thinking about this new group of learners and start planning from where they are and what they might need.
Feelings and emotions are at least as important as cognitive aspects of language learning.
Feelings and emotions fuel learners’ attitudes and motivation for learning. It is futile to provide teaching and materials which are viewed by the learners as irrelevant or uninteresting. And if they feel antipathy or indifference to the language and culture of the language they are learning, success is likely to elude them. Learning and starting to speak a new language are challenges to any learner’s self-image and identity, and if this makes them feel uncomfortable, they will put up resistance, either consciously or unconsciously. The tendency to view learning as the receipt and acceptance of scientifically-designed packages to be ‘delivered’ by a qualified technician flies in the face of this fact.
Allow your learners to express their feelings about learning another language and to let you know what they like or don’t like about it.
Their feelings are often related to speaking, and whether or not they feel comfortable when asked to say something in a new language in class. It is good to let them play with the language in different ways, especially in the early stages of learning, and also to expose them to rhymes, poems, cartoons and stories. This, in turn, can lead on to drama activities, roleplaying and other creative tasks that allow space for affect as well as cognition in the classroom. The role of music in enhancing learning, not just languages but all learning, is a further example of the way feelings can be addressed in a classroom.
Attitudes (positive/negative) are closely linked to motivation and, therefore, affect success in learning.
This is a corollary to Axiom 7 above. Motivation refers to the degree to which a learner wishes to learn what is on offer, and the corresponding amount of effort they are willing to invest in it. In spite of much investigation, however, motivation is still relatively poorly understood, and much of the research into it seems to result in oversimplification and superficially neat categorisation. Like learning itself, motivation is not a one-off event: it is subject to change and variation. As N S Prabhu puts it, ‘motivation is the name of the unknown’. However, we can be sure that real, deep learning happens when the will to learn comes from within a learner rather than from an external imperative such as the need to pass an examination.
Help learners to develop positive attitudes to the new language and to find the inner motivation they will need in order to learn.
There is no doubt that good teachers find ways of motivating their learners. Above all, learners need to understand the added value that speaking a new language will give them in a world which is becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural. This adds to the importance of seeing English as much more than just one more school subject and, rather, as a means of reaching into different cultures and a way of opening up channels of communication internationally. The British Council’s ‘Connecting Classrooms’ project (https://connecting-classrooms.britishcouncil.org) represents an attempt to bring the importance of this into focus at school level.
The teacher as a person is at least as important as the teacher as an expert technician.
Learners are profoundly influenced by the character and personality of teachers. We learn our teachers, not just what they teach. There have been many investigations into the factors which contribute to becoming a successful teacher, but all agree that the teacher’s personality and attitude (to themselves, to their students, to the subject, etc) play a key role. See, for example, work by Alan Maley and Tamas Kiss, by Luke Prodromou and by Penny Ur. Most learners like teachers who make them feel secure, and this is particularly the case in a foreign language class, which, for many, is a step into the unknown. Trust and fairness are key features of good teacher–learner relationships. Learners also appreciate teachers who show their humanity by being themselves and who allow their learners to be themselves in class. Teaching is not just a performance, and classroom life should not be a drama. When we recall a past teacher, it is rarely their pedagogical practices which spring to mind; it is their personal attributes which we remember most clearly.
Be there. Be present. Be yourself.
Presence means ‘being there’ in a state of relaxed attention and total readiness for whatever comes along. It is especially important to be present when your learners need you on their terms rather than yours. Don’t circle around groupwork like a prison guard checking on everything. Go and sit in a corner and wait for the learners to call you in to ask you a question or support their learning in some way. Make them feel your presence and your readiness to be there for them without dominating them. Offer feedback on their terms and when they are ready for it. Use your voice in different ways to reinforce messages and to signal different phases in a lesson. Don’t disguise your real self in the classroom. Share your own language learning experiences.
Teachers are also learners: of their learners, of themselves, of their craft.
The most effective teachers are those who continue to learn their craft over a lifetime. This implies a mindset of inquiry. It also entails a continuing, informed interest in their learners and how they learn. The good teacher will also ‘learn each class’ anew as they learn together. This evolving expertise is what Prabhu has termed the teacher’s ‘sense of plausibility’.
Always remember what it’s like to be a learner.
Learners teach you every day, but you have to be prepared to tune in to what they are telling you through their responses and all the different signals they send out. Learn how to read these signals and try to see each lesson from the learners’ perspective as well as your own. Ask them for feedback and act on it. This is all the more important in this age of technological advances when the learners may be experiencing their learning in a different way from the way you did when you were at school. Also, continue to engage with the language you teach (through reading, watching films, creative writing and direct contact with other users), stay up-to-date with current trends in language pedagogy, take part in professional exchanges through conferences, professional associations, observing colleagues and being observed.
So what does all this mean for language teachers and how they may define their roles? First and foremost, they are there to mediate between the language and the learners. In practical terms, this means providing input and tasks that will challenge the learners cognitively and linguistically, as well as engaging them affectively. Good teachers will also find ways of facilitating learning rather than prescribing what should be learnt. In such a learning-centred classroom, this means providing safety, support and encouragement for the learners as they work on tasks and engage in activities. The teacher may monitor these activities and should remain aware of the quality and quantity of language they generate among the learners. And then, as the learners complete the activities, the teacher will offer constructive feedback on their performance, focusing on what they have achieved and on what they might improve. This, in turn, will require the teacher to take stock of and evaluate the learners’ progress and to help them to self-evaluate against shared criteria. At all times, the skilled teacher will know when to lead and take centre stage, when to intervene in a learning process, and when to stand back and simply allow classroom events to unfold naturally.
Teacher educators and trainers need to be in touch with classroom realities and with the axioms and principles we have described in this article. In particular, they need to start where their trainees and participants are at the start of their course. First-year trainee teachers are just at the start of their journey from being a learner to being a teacher, but their tutors should never forget that they have years of learning experience to draw on. They are far from being empty vessels. In-service teachers on a short course bring all their years of teaching experience with them, and the least a trainer should do is to ensure that this valuable resource plays a part in the course. Teacher education should not be the business of academics, as it is in so many contexts.
As we have shown, teaching and learning encounters are often unpredictable and subject to countless variables. Since there is no single right way to teach, professional education and training courses should avoid formulaic and method-driven approaches. Instead, they would do better to focus on how to deal with the unexpected as well as working with constants.
Teacher educators need to help their trainees to emerge as teachers, balancing knowledge and pedagogic skills with attention to personal development and attitude building. This needs to be reflected in the way future teachers are assessed, implying a holistic emphasis on facilitation of learning and the ability to cope with changing demands in a lesson, as well as on itemised checklists of the sub-skills of teaching.
We believe that people learn to teach by teaching, which means incorporating teaching practice from the outset in teacher preparation courses. This will help the trainees to start making the transition from being only a learner to being primarily a teacher. A further implication is that teacher preparation programmes should be longer than most of those currently available. Our obsession with speed and efficiency has come at the expense of effectiveness. It is worth noting that a movement for ‘slow education’ has now taken off, at least at school level. It could profitably be extended to foreign language learning and teacher training contexts
(see www.slowmovement.com/slow_schools.php).
Curriculum documents are usually aspirational, focusing on broad educational objectives and the values that any society wishes to promote through education. Syllabus documents at subject level vary in the degree of prescriptiveness they seek to impose, and these, in turn, are usually the starting point for the production of textbooks in an educational system. In the case of languages, it would be helpful if syllabus objectives could focus on what learners can do with a new language rather than what they know about it, maybe drawing on descriptors relating to language skills, like those in the CEFR, rather than on language systems and discrete items. These could be provided as roughly-graded checklists, allowing textbook writers and teachers to focus on cumulative learning outcomes rather than just short-term lesson objectives. This would allow textbook writers to provide resources which include texts of many different types as stimuli for communication, to offer choices of texts and activities, to cater to a range of learning styles and preferences and to help learners to be aware of the progress they are making. This progressive view of syllabus and textbook casts them as resources to draw on and as jumping-off points for language activity, in contrast to the long-established view of them as authoritative statements of everything a learner needs to know to pass an exam. Assessment of learning can thus become more holistic and less focused on pre-ordained micro-steps such as vocabulary lists, grammatical rules or comprehension checks. Taking this view will also allow writers to build into their work some of the aspirational aspects of curriculum and syllabus documents, such as the development of life skills (eg critical thinking and decision-making) as well as aspects of intercultural awareness. It almost goes without saying that syllabus and textbook design should be tasks for experienced teachers and other education professionals, rather than for academics.
We hope that you have derived something useful from this article. You may not agree with everything we have proposed, but we hope that, at the very least, our views may have provoked some reflection on many of the things we often take for granted. You will take your own messages from it, but we hope you have noticed that we have pushed at some of the traditional parameters of language education and have tried to re-imagine some of the links between schooling and real education, between teaching and teacher education, and between the artefacts/teaching materials we expose learners to and what they need from them.
Let us end with two quotations:
‘You cannot hope to teach themUntil you start to reach them.’ (Anon)
No amount of planning and policy-making will change this reality, and so we see a real need to run with our learners, rather than imposing a straitjacket on them and their learning.
‘Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.’
(Yuval Noah Harari)
We hope to have raised some questions which we may not be able to answer but which will lead to some productive ways of thinking about what teachers do.
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