Tesol Approaches

I think that it is so interesting the history of education. I mean I really wish that I could be there back then when teaching was really just getting started. Although in history there has always been a role of an educator and a learner in that they used to teach others. It makes me wonder if people are born with this virtues and the ability to teach. I for one feel that yes I was born to be a teacher, I feel that teaching just comes to me naturally and I enjoy being a leader in almost all situations. So this article was interesting to me because it allowed me to see how education has changed thourought history and how each approach led to the creation of another approach because the previous one did not work. I really like what the article says about how each approach is grounded on a slightly different theory or view of how people learn second languages or how people use languages. It's interesting that throughout the history of second language learner, there has been many different needs for the use of the language, in that in history at some times there was not a need to use oral skills of the language but instead there was only a need to know how to read the language. I like all of these approaches and plan to use them in my future teaching classes when the material that I present can be made clearer by using such approaches. But as we have discussed in class, there is absolutely no one size fits all approach that will always be successful in the classroom. As future ESL teachers we need to learn to differentiate instruction and make sure we are not just using one approach but rather that we are incorporating all of the approaches in the appropriate times.

One thing that I really want to criticize about the Comprehension-Based Approach is the third explination of the approach- it says: "Learners should not speak until they feel ready to do so; this results in better pronounciation that when the learner is forced to speak immediately. When I read this I was like, WHAT? That is so stupid. As we discussed about in class part of learning a language is taking risks in using it even if we are unsure of the proper way to do so. Just by listening to the language you are not going to learn anything, through actual use of the language students can test their hypothesis's that they have on the rules of grammar and continue to learn from their mistakes. Also, if you are going to tell students that they do not have to use the language in oral form until they are 'ready', then the majority of them will probably say that they are not ready and push off using the language allowed because they do not feel comfortable. Learning to use a foreign language orally is uncomfortable and that is something that the students have to know from the beginning. The more and more they practice using it allowed the more the will become comfortable in using it and then their competence will grow. It is important for the teacher in the classroom to establish an environment where the students are respectful and courteous to those who are brave enough to practice using the language in front of the whole class, and the class can learn from the mistakes of others. Furthermore. that part of the approach just truly shocked me and made me kind of mad because I just thought to myself how can teachers in the past think that would really work.