2.2. Process of selecting methods to create an eclectic approach
2.2.2. Based on the characteristics of the teaching method…
The second requirement in the process of selecting methods to combine is that teachers have to deeply understand about the methods they intend to merge in together. As stated above, children aged 2-5 are at a certain development stage, therefore, it is important to have certain attributes from different methods to meet the demand of this stage in their life. The methods used should focus on their developments in motor skills, sound imitating and language acquisition abilities, cognitive and social-emotional fields.
There are many methods applied in teaching ESL such as Grammar-Translation, Direct methods, Audio-lingual methods, Total physical response, the Silent way, Community language learning, Suggestopedia, Communicative language teaching, Natural approach, etc. Each of these methods focuses on different objects in the teaching process, therefore, not all can be used in teaching children age 2-5.
Some grammar-based methods like Grammar-Translation, Silent way, Whole language, etc. are ordinarily utilized at schools where students are older and have aced their mother tongue in talking and in composing and are capable of understanding what language structure is. Preschoolers are still creating their mother tongue abilities and are not able to capture the substance of linguistic use and so it would be troublesome to utilize the Community language teaching where
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they are assumed to communicate with others by complex sentences in numerous tenses.
Unlike the eclectic approach, other methods can only possess some, not all, of the required attributes that would fit children aged 2 to 5 years old. Based on the general characteristics of young children mentioned above and the facts of using methods in teaching ESL, there are six suitable approaches being applied widely nowadays.
Firstly, the total physical response (TPR) is nowadays used in not only schools but also English teaching centers like Tomokid, Langmaster, Ocean Edu, Apax, etc.
TPR is an educating approach built around the coordination of speech and activity, it endeavors to instruct language through physical (motor) movement. This method was introduced by Dr. James J. Asher in 1977. He believed that the TPR method is suitable for children aged 2-5 because it focuses on the development of motor skills.
In many Vietnamese English teaching centers, there are many activities that are used as the materials of the TPR methods and the most used are “Simon says” game, charades, sing-dance, etc. (Langmaster, Apax, Tomokid centers, etc.) According to Frost, who comes from the British Council, Turkey, the TPR method has various advantages such as making students’ learning time more enjoyable and memorable, stirring up the class atmosphere, and can be used in both large and small classes provided that teachers are able to lead and have the time to build a syllabus. This can be understood that the TPR method meets the necessary attributes of the suitable method for students ages 2 to 5 because it focuses on stimulating students to use their motor skills.
However, the TPR is not suitable for shy children who are afraid of being mocked if they lose a game, therefore, this method fails to meet the social-emotional criterion.
Besides that, it cannot be used to teach everything and “if used a lot, it could become repetitions” (British Council, n.d., para. 5).
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Secondly, the Audio-lingual method is also very popular for its effectiveness. This method is based on the behaviorist hypothesis of stimulation–response–fortification, in other words, around learning new behaviors. It is exhorted that students ought to be taught a language specifically, without utilizing the students' native language to clarify new words or language structure within the target language, therefore, the method drills students in the use of grammar in speaking (Witek, 2011, p.14).
Although children aged 2-5 are not able to understand what a sentence structure is, they still can completely imitate others’ sounds (Curtain and Dahlberg, 2010, p. 14) and based on these characteristics, the Audio-lingual focuses on repetition of sentences and question-answer activities. Hence, this method is suitable for children aged 2-5 since it makes teachers create the lesson based on words and sentences that its sounds are easy to imitate.
However, because repetition is the main activity, it can lead to the fear of making mistakes and make students feel unconfident. From this point, it is recognized that both TPR and the Audio-lingual care less about the fear and worries of the students during the class’s activities.
The third well-known teaching method is the Direct Method. Like the Audio- lingual method, the Direct one recommends that the target language should be used totally in the class. However, this method focused on speaking and listening skills more than grammar. According to Titone (1968), this method has some principles:
demonstrating instead of translating; acting instead of explaining; asking questions instead of making a speech; correcting instead of imitating mistakes; using sentences instead of a single word; listening more instead of talking to the students;
speak normally instead of too fast or too slow; be patient (pp. 100,101). In other words, the Direct method tries to teach students the second language by the way that is similar to the mother tongue as much as possible. Therefore, it can be shown that the Direct method meets the demands of a suitable teaching method for young learners due to its language acquisition attention.
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Following these basic principles, it is proved that the Direct method helps students to speak fluently since it motivates the oral skills from early childhood and to avoid the unnatural blocks of translation. However, this method cannot be used in a large class and it only becomes effective when teachers have perfect native speaking skills.
The next two approaches would be mentioned are Situational language teaching (SLT) and Communicative language teaching (CLT). The situational approach was presented and applied widely since the late 1960s and it stated that the ESL should be taught to young children by using situation-based activities. This can make the lesson become meaningful to young students and make them remember longer.
(Smith and Loewen, 2018, para. 1) The advantage of this method is that it is designed based on the students' cognitive development, thereby solving their short- term memory problem as well as their curiosity. However, it is only the listening and vocabulary skills that are focused on this method, students can understand what people are talking but not talking to them.
To overcome the disadvantage of the SLT method, the CLT was created with a comprehensive focus on the above factors. According to Pearson (2008), he stated that learning a language demands real communication, and the CLT method requires communicative activities. These activities ought to be displayed in a situation or context and have a communicative purpose (p. 2).
The CLT helps students both to retain the knowledge and reach the structure needed in speaking skills. Additionally, the CLT is suitable for timid children because the teachers can encourage them individually in order to help them join the activities.
The CLT method, following these explanations, shows the attention of it in the social-emotional development of students aged 2-5. It is a strong point to make the CLT become an exceptional teaching method for young learners.
However, this method demands too much on the understanding of teachers to their students, and it focuses much on fluency but not accuracy, which can lead to the
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produce incoherent, grammatically incorrect sentences in the future. (Richards, 2006, p. 45)
Last but not least is the task-based approach. This method also focuses on making the lesson meaningful, in other words, the method based on the cognitive of the young learners, additionally, it is considered as a logical development of the CLT method (Richards and Rodgers, 2001, p. 224). If the CLT method is the combination of communicative and situations then the task-based is one of the communicative and interesting tasks. Instead of making situations, teachers in this approach will give students the real tasks that make them interested. In this way, it is allowed the variance in the classroom, reduces boredom and encourages students to use various communicative techniques such as persuading, debating, comparing.
However, the disadvantages of this method are noted as similar to ones of the CLT method.
To sum up, six teaching methods listed above have some similarities as well as differences that are suitable for aspects of the development of children aged 2-5. If the TPR focuses on the nourishment of motor skills, then the emotion of the students is ignored. The same goes for the Audio-lingual method, while the imitating abilities of the students are the center of the class, the emotion of the students who are afraid to make mistakes is neglected. The SLT and CLT method can improve the disadvantages of the other two approaches, however, it fails to meet the accuracy in grammar and pronoun demands. Therefore, the eclectic approach – the combination of two or more methods, will be the best solution to improve all the cons of other ones.
It should be noted that the six methods mentioned above are not the only methods for eclectic ESL teaching but they are the most common ones. When using the eclectic method, not only can the teacher use either some or all of those six but he/she can also apply methods that were not included here, provided that said teacher is capable of effectively applying them (Gardner, n.d., para. 6).
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