Class experience

The class I prepared as part of my Methodology class has helped me view EFL classes in a more analytical way and take into consideration the different aspects for a class to be communicative. All this was possible thanks to the feedback given by the teacher and classmates, and the theoretical classes which weren´t that clear until I reached the practical part of this subject. Definitely, I must say that managing unplanned situations, time, techniques, skills, functions, grammar and integrating them is not as easy as I expected. Having stated its difficulty, I also want to add that the aspects studied in the subject must be practised, therefore, this subject should be extended (given more time), in order to give students the chance to perfectionise their methodology and fulfil any fuurther needs.

Communicative Language Teaching

Language teaching has been seen from many different views. But the Communicative Language Teaching approach can be considered as the most assertive as it sees language from a functional way. Also, CLT allows the incorporation of other approaches, not like many of the others, reducing its weak points to a minimum. These last two last points can make a classroom more interesting for the participants because it means taking into account many aspects of real life communication and more variety. To sum up, it can be said that CLT is probably the most appropriate approach to be used in an English language classroom because of its adaptability.

Approaches

Surely, teaching is a career because it is supported on a theoretical base which is, undoubtly, the fruit of many years of research. These years of experience have helped compile a great deal of valuable information regarding the ways of teaching a language. In some way, it can be said that the Grammar Translation Method, Direct Method, Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching, Audiolingual Method, Total Physical Response, The Silent Way, Community Language Teaching, Natural Approach, Suggestopedia and the Communicative Language Teaching are the language teacher’s theoretical base. However, it must be recognized that each approach or method has its deficiency or better said they can complement each other for a more “effective” class.

About me

My name is Johann Stoll and I am an English teacher student at the Caracas Pedagogical Institute, Venezuela. At this moment, I am finishing my fourth year in which I attend to an English methodology course (among others) which I expect will help improve my teaching skills.