AN APPROACH, A METHOD AND A TECHNIQUE

A. Approach

The organizational key is that the techniques carry out a method that is

consistent with an approach. An approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing

with the nature of language teaching and learning. An approach is axiomatic (clear,

does not need to be proved). It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught.

In other words, According to Edward Anthony’s model (1965:65) an approach

embodies the theoretical principles governing language learning and language

teaching. A method, however, is “an overall plan for the orderly presentation of

language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the

selected approach. An approach is axiomatic, true in such an obvious way that you do

not to prove it, a method is procedural”.

Various approaches shall have distinctive features, if we are going to be good

teachers then we need to blend or integrate two or more methods in order to come up

with a workable procedure in the classroom. The use of two or more methods or

approaches is what is referred to as Eclecticism (Richards,1986).

The Antony framework attempted to portray the entire language teaching

operations as simple, hierarchical relationship between approach, method, and

technique, without in any way considering the complex connections between

intervening factors such as societal demands, institutional resources and constraints or

restrictions , instructional effectiveness, and learners needs.

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B. Method

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), a method is theoretically related to

an approach, organized by the design, and practically realized in procedure. The plan

of language teaching which consistent with the theories (Edward Anthony-1963).

Method may mean different things to different people (Mackey, 1975:155) For some ,

it means a set of teaching procedures; for others, the avoidance of teaching

procedures. For some, it is the primary of a language skill; for others, it is the type and

amount of vocabulary and structure.

A method is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material,

no part or which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach.

An approach is axiomatic, a method is procedural. Within one approach, there can be

many methods.

The term “method” in the direct method may refer to a single aspect of

language teaching: presentation of material. Method in the Reading Method refers to

the emphasis of a single language skill: reading, while In the Grammar Translation

Method, method refers to the emphasis of the teaching material.

According to Mackey (1975:157), all teaching, whether good or bad, must

include some sort of selection, some sort of gradation, some sort of presentation, and

some sort of repetition. Therefore, all methods should include the four steps of

teaching a language. Any method should include the four steps: selection, gradation,

presentation, and repetition.

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C. Technique

A technique is implementation – that which actually takes place in a

classroom. It is a particular trick, stratagem, or contrivance used to accomplish an

immediate objective. Techniques must be consistent with a method, and therefore in

harmony with an approach as well (Anthony 1963: 63-7). In short, technique is

something that actually takes place in language teaching or learning in the classroom.

The following are some examples of techniques in error correction.

1. The teacher does not praise or criticize so that language learners learn to rely

on themselves (Silent Way).

2. The teacher often praises when a student has made a good thing in learning

(Audio Lingual Method).

3. When a student has produced a wrong expression, the teacher just repeats the

right one (Total Physical Response).

4. The teacher does not care when a student make an error as long as it does not

hinder (delay/prevent) communication (Natural Method)

Carry out a method. Technique is implementation, meaning that a technique is

something that actually takes place in language teaching or learning in the classroom.

The following are some examples of techniques in error correction.

5. The teacher does not praise or criticize so that language learners learn to rely

on themselves (Silent Way).

6. The teacher often praises when a student has made a good thing in learning

(Audio Lingual Method).

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7. When a student has produced a wrong expression, the teacher just repeats the

right one (Total Physical Response).

8. The teacher does not care when a student make an error as long as it does not

hinder (delay/prevent) communication (Natural Method)

According Brown (2007:180) there are several terms of technique as follow:

a. Task.

Task usually refers to a specialized form of technique or series of

techniques closely allied with communicative curricula, and as such must

minimally have communicative goals. It is focuses on the authentic use of

language for meaningful communicative purpose beyond the language

classroom.

b. Activity.

Activity may refer to virtually anything that learners do in the classroom,

usually refer to a reasonably unified set of student behavior, limited in

time, preceded by some direction from the teacher, with a particular

objective. Activities include role plays, drills, games, peer-editing, small-

group information-gap exercise, and much more. Because an activity

implies some sort of active performance on the part of learners, it is

generally not used to refer to certain teacher behaviors’ like saying “good

morning,” maintaining eye contact with students, explaining a grammar

point, or writing a list of words on the chalkboard. Such teacher behaviors’

however can indeed be referred to as technique.

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c. Procedure.

Richards and Rodgers (2001:26) used the term procedure to encompass

“the actual moment-to-moment techniques, practices, and behavior that

operate in teaching a language according to a particular method”.

Procedures from this definition include techniques. Thus, for Richards and

Rodgers, this appears to be a catchall term, a thing for holding many small

objects or a group or description that includes different things and that

does not state clearly what is included or not.

d. Practice, behavior, exercise, strategy.

In the language-teaching literature, these terms, and perhaps some others,

all appear to refer, in varying degrees of intensity, to what is defined as

technique.

e. Technique

Even before Anthony (1963) discussed and defined the term, the language

teaching literature generally accepted technique as a super ordinate term to

refer to various activities that either teachers or learners perform in the

classroom. In other words, technique includes all tasks and activities. They

almost always planned and deliberate, done on purpose rather than by

accident.

Techniques and all activities is the product of a choice made by the teacher

and they can use for purposes as a language teacher, comfortably refer to

the pedagogical units or components of a classroom session. A lesson

consist of a number of techniques, some teacher-centered, some learner-

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centered, some production-centered, some comprehension-centered, some

clustering together to form a task.

According to Anthony’s model, approach is the level at which assumptions

and beliefs about language and language learning are specified; method is the level at

which theory is put into practice and at which choices are made about the particular

skills to be taught, the content to be taught, and the order in which the content will be

presented, technique is the level at which classroom procedures are described.

Clarke (1983:111) summarized the inadequacy of the Antony framework as

follows: Approach, by limiting our perspective of language learning and teaching,

serves as a blinder which hampers rather than encourages, professional growth.

Method is so vague that it means just about anything that anyone wants it to mean,

with the result that, in fact, it means nothing. And technique, by giving the impression

that teaching activities can be understood as abstractions separate from the context in

which they occur, obscures the fact that classroom practice is a dynamic interaction of

diverse system. In short, the Antony framework did not effectively serve the purpose

for which it was designed.

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Reference

Brown, D.H. (2001). Teaching By Principle.Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.

Clarke,M.A.1983. The Scope Of Approach, The Importance Of Method, And The Nature Of Technique. In J.E. Alatis. H.Stern,& P. Strevens (Eds.). Geogetown University Round Table on Language and Linguistics 1983. : Applied linguistics and the preparation of second language teachers (pp.106-115). Washington, D.C: Georgetown University.

Kumaravadivelu, B. 2006. Understanding Language teaching.New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,Inc. , Publisher.

Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. 2nd ed.Oxford: OUP

Lightbown, P& Nina Spada.1993. How Language Are Learned. New York: Oxford University Press.

Prichard, Alan.2009. Ways Of Learning: Learning Theories And Learning Styles In The Classroom. New York: Routledge.

Richard, Jack C.,&Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press

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