62 SPROGFORUM NO. 19, 2001

For both pedagogical and educationalreasons it is crucial to know what it isthat makes language teaching goodlanguage teaching. Surveys have beenconducted to find out that the goodlanguage learner does; it would bewonderful to have a correspondingtop-ten list of what the good languageteacher does. But language teachingand language acquisition are complexentities and it is difficult to point towhat exactly it is in teaching that leadsto the results in learning. All languageteachers have experienced activities be-ing a success in one class but an abso-lute failure in the next. Good languageteaching in practice is, then, to a greatextent a series of relative processes, It is

only good if it is constantly adapted toparticular students’ needs, potentialand situation.

On the other hand, there are also certainprinciples that underlie practice. Theconcrete activities in the actual teach-ing are an expression of certaingeneralisable principles, and it is in theinteraction between principles andpractice that good language teaching isto be delineated as a dynamic entity.

For language teaching to preserve itsdynamic nature and to become, and re-main, good language teaching, the lan-guage teacher must constantly workdialectically with principles and prac-

Karen LundLecturer, Ph.D. (Danish as a SecondLanguage)The Danish University of Education

Michael SvendsenPedersen

Managing Director, BLitt, MLittLINGVA FRANCA Language & Culture

What is Good LanguageTeaching?

63KAREN LUND & MICHAEL SVENDSEN PEDERSEN: WHAT IS GOOD LANGUAGE TEACHING?

tice: convert principles into concreteteaching activities and use the concreteactivities to adjust the principles. Third-ly, the good language teacher must beable to develop principles and practicein the light of the theories underlyingboth principles and practice and there-fore be able to reflect on what view oflanguage, acquisition, culture and hu-man beings is the driving force behindgiven principles and activities.

Good language teaching is then a dy-namic entity which derives its dyna-mism from the teacher’s ‘research ac-tivity’.

Principles for good language teaching

We can ask the question and attempt tocome up with some possible answers:What must the good language teacherbe able to do? What learning forummust he or she place at the disposal ofthose seeking to acquire the language?

1 Good language teaching opens up the possibility for a communicative learning forum

In a communicative learning forumlanguage learners gain the opportunityto:• experience themselves as users of

the new language in genuine com-munication

• express themselves in the new lan-guage forum

• undergo experiences involving thenew language

• undergo experiences involving cul-tural and social differences.

These principles are based on a con-

ception of language as a functionalmeans of communication and learningas a cognitive, social process where thesearch for language for mediation, in-teraction and understanding of an out-side world are seen as the driving forcebehind acquisition.

The possibilities of putting these prin-ciples into practice lie in content-ori-ented problem-solving tasks that sup-plement each other and together createcontent-based contexts (tasks, problem-based assignments, projects).

A central criterion for assessingwhether the planned activities willlead to the establishing of a communi-cative forum is where there lies behindthe activities a visibly well-definedcontent-borne aim. Are there good rea-sons for the individual to set out on alinguistic interaction with the outsideworld - orally or in writing - as a lis-tener or as a reader? Whether the peda-gogical organisation with initiate lin-guistic interaction depends on whetherthere is any good reason for listeningor reading that which is to be commu-nicated, and whether there is any clearaim in talking or putting pen to paper.

2 Good language teaching creates lin guistic attention in relation to the content-oriented communication

• Does the task require two-way com-munication? Does everybody in thegroup have to participate for thetask to be solved - i.e. have all par-ties gathered information that theothers need?

• Is interaction required for the task tobe solved or the project completed?

64 SPROGFORUM NO. 19, 2001

• Is it built into the task that the par-ties have to attain a common goal?

The more times one can answer in theaffirmative to the above questions, thegreater the possibility will be that theactivities taking place in the class willgive rise to active, concentrated read-ers, listeners, speakers and writers. Ifone can answer in the affirmative tothese questions, opportunities will ex-ist for the participants to be part of ac-tivities that require them:• to understand the input they are ex-

posed to• to try and clarify meaning when-

ever there is something they do notunderstand

• to give feed-back on what they hearand to get feed-back on what theysay.

This means that the conditions exist forlanguage learners to note that which isone of the central learning tasks, i.e. thenew language clothing that surroundsthe content. The more it is built into thecommunicative activities that under-standing, clarification and feed-backare necessary, the greater the chancethat the participants will acquire newlanguage and develop their interlang-uage. One of the central conditions fora developing of interlanguage takingplace is that the individual discoversand notes the hole in his or her owninterlanguage and then sets aboutplugging it.

Learning a new language is a long-term, experimental process in whichhypotheses have to be put forward andtested concerning the relationships be-

tween linguistic content and linguisticforms. This is best achieved if the ac-tivities one is involved in regularly en-able one to consciously focus on thenew language.

Learning a new language is also a pro-cess that requires opportunities to usethe same language for a variety of pur-poses. Without repetitions, no automa-tion of the new language will takeplace.

3 Good language teaching helps the students to assume responsibility for their own learning

One of ways of trying to promote com-municative teaching has to do withmoving from the more closed, teacher-defined types of tasks to open, self-de-fined activities. This is a hard lesson -not only for the language learner butfor the teacher as well. The teacher hasto learn to let go, and the students whoare used to having teacher-controlledteaching have to go through a phase ofreassessment as to what good teachingis. This is best achieved via a process. Asudden change to more open forms oforganisation will probably not lead toautonomous, self-governing languagelearners but rather to discontented stu-dents who long to return to the goodold authoritarian teaching forum.

The role of the teacher in the communi-cative forum will change from beingthe mediating ‘tanker’ to being a peda-gogical organiser, initiator, observerand resource person. And most of theteacher’s work will consist of planning- before and after the actual teaching.

Previous issues: 1994/95: No. 1: Kulturforståelse (out of print); No. 2: Didaktiske tilløb(out of print); No. 3: Et ord er et ord (out of print). 1996: No. 4: Kommunikativ kompetence(out of print); No. 5: Mellem bog og internet (out of print); No. 6: Den professionelle sprog-lærer (out of print). 1997: No. 7: Fra grammatik- til systemtilegnelse (out of print); No. 8:Projektarbejde (få eksemplarer); No. 9: Dansk som andetsprog (out of print). 1998: No.10:Sprogtilegnelse (out of print); No. 11: Evaluering af sprogfærdighed (out of print); No. 12:Sprog og fag. 1999: No. 13: Internationalisering; No. 14: Mundtlighed (out of print); No. 15:Læring og læreoplevelser. 2000: No. 16: Sprog på skrift; No. 17: Brobygning i sprogfag-ene; No. 18: Interkulturel kompetence (out of print).

Most articles are available on our homepage www.dpb.dpu.dk/infodok/Sprogforum/from where they can be printed out free of charge

KAREN LUND & MICHAEL SVENDSEN PETERSEN: WHAT IS GOOD LANGUAGE TEACHING? 65

4 Good language teaching breaksdown walls

In autonomous, communicative teach-ing, walls have been broken down. Theclass seeks information and does projectwork in the right place, which will onlyrarely be in a classroom horseshoe. Insecond-language teaching there areideal possibilities right outside. TheDanish language, Danish society areright there and can be fetched andused in the activities of the class. In for-eign-language teaching, the Internetopens up possibilities which, in manyways, can help to liberate the students.

IT and the Internet can enhance theprocess towards greater autonomy, butonly if IT is conceived in conjunctionwith a pedagogical practice that buildspartly on communicative activities andpartly on a problem-solving learning

forum where responsibility for one’sown learning is one of the portals. Theworst scenario is every man his com-puter, without an iota of pedagogicalinnovation taking place. That wouldtake us back to a teaching and a me-dium that are best at dealing with thestructural filling-in exercises of thepast. No amount of introducing techni-cal aids will be of any benefit if theyare simply anchored in a traditional,teacher-governed, grammar-fixatedteaching practice.

Good language teaching seeks to estab-lish free scope in the form of workshopsand study centres as a centre of gyra-tion for the activities of both the indi-vidual and the class. It creates workfora where there is not only freedombut also an obligation to assume re-sponsibility for one’s own learning.