TESOL Methods

This demonstrates using the color chart used in the Silent Way.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• TESOL
• Methodology

[SirBounder]

Boring, boring, boring class. Where is this guy from? I hope that English is not his first language: a rather pitiful and trite class - typical American.

[ojcsteve]

@SirBounder

Obviously, you do not know much about language teaching methods such as the Silent Way, Counseling Language Learning, Total Physical Response...so you cannot undersantd this method...but that is ok....when you learn something about TESOL teaching methods, come back and we can have a conversation about this...good luck...

[SirBounder]

Here's proof that speaking English is different from teaching. This guy has no clue. His adverbs are adjectives and vice versa. He is NOT QUALIFIED to be doing this and needs to start selling burgers in McDonald's.

[ojcsteve]

@SirBounder What are you talking about? Adverbs? Adjectives? It's not a grammar lesson...learn something about TESOL methodology and then let's talk...oh, TESOL...it means Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages...not sure you know that.

[Rodriguez9181]

Since I am taking English Phonetics I think it's better to introduce IPA. English has more than 5 vowels, actually about 14 plus dipthongs. I still don't understand how colors help students pronounce better?

[ojcsteve]

Since we all know colors (with the exception of color blind people), we do not need to remember "red" so the process is associating a sound (which has many written forms) with a color (which takes no effort to remember).

With IPA we have to connect/ remember a symbol (which is new to us) with the sound...it adds a small, but cognitively demanding step.

Finally, the key in pronouncing better is for students to develop their own criteria for the sounds...not to mimic the teacher's pronunciation.

[mshmshmshmshmsh]

this helped me to understand the silent method. my teacher sent me here. thank you so much.

[storparaply]

Try offering the pointer to the students, and having them come up to the chart to practice. They can connect more with the physicality of producing what are sometimes new mouth positions. You're then handing it over to them to take control of their own learning even more. Some will still prefer to only do it from their seats, and that's okay, but overall the energy level goes up as students are attending to each other and themselves more than they are attending to the teacher. Try it! It's fun!

[jsnhyns]

you need good eye sight for this task!

[geordieant]

I think this is an exemplary class not only for the method but also for the teaching style: this teacher is clearly an enabler, someone who remains in control, yet gives all the decisions to the students and creates an environment in which they learn.

[Dazzletoad]

You dont know how colours help people pronounce better? They are words like any other and what you may have missed is when you give people easier words to pronounce their confidence reaches such levels that the odds of them being able to pronounce harder words better increases.

Its learning via attribution and through linking, people can be positively manipulated to show them they have the ability to take control language and produce their own good results. All learning is good learning.

[topseyu]

If we all "develop our own criteria for the sounds" wouldn't that lead to a breakdown in communication? That would mean that we don't need to do vocabulary drills and whatever criteria students use their pronunciation would be 'better.' Students look to (or rather listen to) teachers for correct pronunciation.

[topseyu]

i think as well that it would have been more useful to have taught the IPA as dictionaries use IPA. Relating a sound to a colour would be useful if text was written in the relevant colours which of course it isn't. However if a learner of English comes across an unknown word, looking it up in a dictionary with IPA would inform of its pronunciation. He could still have had the IPA symbol written on the different coloured squares.

[MsTehm]

doesn't this site have an option of downloading videos?

[leonardoelt]

The Silent Way Method has been broadly recognised due to its effectiveness in many schools of English around the world. Moreover, it belongs to the current ELT methods that we should apply in our classrooms. Therefore, we had better recognise this teacher's effort to enrich his class with new metodology rather than saying he is not qualified at teaching a language that even natives cannot manage at all.