Elias Daniel Passangeze

Year II/Semester I; English Language Teaching Course - EaD

Didactic of English 1
Theoretical background

Tutor:
Eduardo Apita Mateus, MA

Unirovuma University
March, 2024

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Contents table
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.Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3

2.Knowledge vs. methodology........................................................................................................4

3.Language learning vs. ‘academic’ subjects learning....................................................................4

4.Teacher-centeredness vs. student-centeredness…………...…………………………………….5

5.Grammatical competence vs. communicative competence..........................................................6

6.Teaching decisions: planning, interactive and evaluative decisions............................................7

7. Styles of teaching and suggestions for its use.............................................................................8

8. The nature of L1 and L2 acquisition..........................................................................................10

9.The stages of a lesson plan.........................................................................................................11

10.Conclusion................................................................................................................................12

11. Reference……………………………………………………………………………………13

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 1. Introduction

Theoretical backgrounds of teaching are essential for the success of teaching and learning
process. Practical backgrounds are results of a good comprehension of the theoretical aspects.

Teaching process is a sequence of structures, stages and, a lot of aspects essential. By this way,
in this piece of essay will be described the essential components of a teaching process. All
process of teaching has the same goals; transmit the new knowledge to the students and to get
success in this process is Important to look at the correct application of strategies and other.

This present essay belongs to didactic English 1 subject, as a way to interact students and future
English teachers with differents teaching structures or segments. With theme theoretical
background of English teaching process, we have the following objectives:

General:

 To develop, the principals elements of teaching process.

Specifics:
 To differentiate some aspects such as knowledge, methodology, language learning and
language acquisition, etc;
 To explain the main a lesson plan stages;
 To identify the nature of l1 and l2 acquisition;

In order to bring truth and confident information, on production of this present field research
essay, the author going to use different sources of research or consult bibliography of different
author. In terms of the structure of the essay, it will obey the following structures introduction,
development, conclusion and bibliographic reference.

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 2. Knowledge vs. methodology
 Knowledge refers to the facts, information or skills acquired through education or
experience. That is, knowledge is about the existence of information, ideas or skills where it can
be learned in a classroom or by experience.
According to OXFORD dictionary it can be defined as a set of fact, information,, and skills
acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

 Methodology is defined as the theoretical framework to support the methods chosen. It is

a perspective taken on the research, which dictates how it is approached. Methodology is a range
of proposed options according to the chosen didactic pattern. Versatility (flexibility) must be a
key component in this basic element of didactic planning.

3. Language learning vs. ‘academic’ subjects learning

 Language learning is an active process that begins at birth and continues throughout life.
Students learn language as they use it to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and experiences,
establish relationships with family members and friends, and strive to make sense and order of
their world. They may come to school speaking more than one language, or learn another
language in school. It is important to respect and build upon each student’s first language.
Experience in one language will benefit the learning of other languages.

In their early years, children develop language informally. Long before they understand explicit
language rules and conventions, they reproduce and use language to construct and convey new
Meaning in unique ways. Later, language learning occurs in specific contexts for specific
purposes, such as learning about a particular topic, participating in the community, and pursuing
work and leisure activities.

All students can be successful learners. Responsibility for language learning is shared by
students, parents, teachers, and the community. Students require ongoing opportunities to use
language in its many forms. Opportunities to learn language occur first at home and are extended
as children move into the larger community. Schools provide environments where students

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continue to develop language knowledge, skills, and strategies to achieve personal, social, and
academic goals.
4. Teacher-centeredness vs. student-centeredness

These two teaching backgrounds refer the focus of the teacher and student in classroom. In spite
are all essential in learning and teaching process, each of them has his proper role. Classroom
management is a multi-faceted concept that includes the organization of the physical
environment, the establishment of rules and routines, the development of effective relationships,
and the prevention of and response to misbehavior. Some researchers suggest that it is helpful to
view classroom management beliefs and practices on a continuum from teacher-centered to
student-centered.

In teacher-centered classrooms, control is of primary importance and “authority is transmitted

hierarchically” (Dollard & Christensen, 1996, p. 3), meaning the teacher exerts control over the
students. Critics of teacher-centeredness argue that in these classrooms, compliance is valued
over initiative and passive learners over active learners (Freiberg, 1999). In addition, teachers
exert their control through a system of clearly defined rules, routines and punishments that are
mandated rather than developed with the students (Freiberg, 1999).

Generally, teachers identify the rules necessary for an orderly classroom and time is set aside for
the teaching of these rules during the first several days of school. When students exhibit
undesirable behavior, advocates of a teacher-centered approach often rely on punishments, such
as reprimands, frowns, time outs and loss of special privileges (Lovitt, 1990).

Finally, in teacher-centered classrooms, teachers may rely on extrinsic motivation to influence

student behavior. Here, completion of a task is seen as a prerequisite for obtaining something
desirable (Chance, 1993) such as social rewards (e.g. praise), activity rewards (e.g. free time,
computer time) and tangible rewards (e.g. candy and stickers).
 Teacher centeredness
 Teacher is the sole leader
 Management is a form of oversight
 Teacher takes responsibility for all the paperwork and organization

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  Discipline comes from the teacher
 A few students are the teacher’s helpers
 Teacher makes the rules and posts them for all students
 Consequences are fixed for all students
 Rewards are mostly extrinsic
 Students are allowed limited responsibilities
 Few members of the community enter the classroom

 Student centeredness
 Management is a form of guidance
 Students are facilitators for the operations of the classroom
 Discipline comes from the self
 Leadership is shared
 All students have the opportunity to become an integral part of the management of the
classroom
 Rules are developed by the teacher and students in the form of a constitution or compact
 Consequences reflect individual differences
 Rewards are mostly intrinsic
 Students share in classroom responsibilities
 Partnerships are formed with business and community groups to enrich and broaden the
learning opportunities for students.

5. Grammatical competence vs. communicative competence

Grammatical and communicative both are linguistics competences necessaries to any language
speaker. All are acquired by different ways and strategies. In the next, it will be detailed each the
main differences between these linguistic areas of study.
 Grammatical competence: refers to acquire the system of language use including
vocabularies, pronunciation, spelling, word formation and structure. In other words, the
grammatical competences are including phonology, morphology, and syntax.

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Grammar competence focus on study of grammatical structures, it can be defined as the way a
language manipulate and combines words in order to form longer units of meaning. There is a set
of rules which govern how units of meaning may be constructed in any language.

According to Nassaji and Fotos (2011), grammatical competence is the speakers’ knowledge of
the forms and meanings that exist in grammar, and a theoretical knowledge of how to use them.
This type of knowledge is reflected in the grammar rules.
According to my understood, grammatical competences are linguistics competences or
knowledge acquired through study of grammatical rules.
 Communicative competence: refers to the ability to use language, or to communicate, in a
culturally appropriate manner in order to make meaning and accomplish social tasks with
efficacy and fluency through extended interactions. It also include the ability to make meaning in
authentic contexts, it also includes an assumption of facility. In his study of interlanguage
analysis.
Palloti (2010) distinguishes between communicative competence and linguistic competence, but
he also indicates that communicative competence is further divided into efficacy (the ability to
reach one communicative goals) and fluency (the ability to do so smoothly, quickly and
effortlessly), (p.173).
From these arguments, I can claim that communicative competence refers the abilities of the use
correctly the grammatical rules. A learner can know all grammatical rules and don’t use these
perfectly to get communicative competence, which are fluency and efficacy. Truly the most
required competence by the all language learners are communicative competence, the learners
they which to be able speaking perfectly with someone else of a native speaker.
6. Teaching decisions: planning, interactive and evaluative decisions
This is a very complex process to be decided rapidly. Teaching decisions is a set of steps, who
states in government, not so, they are sets of strategies of curriculum implementation. Planning,
interactive and evaluative decisions are all them decisions made by the teacher before and in the
classroom. This piece of essay, it will describe each decision and its focus.
a) Planning: this is the first and most crucial decision of teaching process. This step of teaching
is characterized by teacher activities and these activities or decisions consist into think or make
questions such as: What is the theme that I going to teach? What are education goals and

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learning objectives? Which materials and teaching aids can I use? What methods to use and what
techniques to use in the classroom? Those and another questions are made by the teacher before
go in the classroom.
b) Planning is a teacher’s reflection moment or decision moment, as a way to bring efficient
and productive lesson to the students.
c) Interactive: this step can be understood as a period of transmission and assimilation of the
contents planed before by the teacher. Here teacher apply the techniques, methods and use the
materials early prepared on planning step.
d) Evaluative decision: this step is the last one, after planning and interactive, evaluative
decisions contain the different methods of evaluation. The objective of the teacher is to certify
that students they understood what he taught.
7. Styles of teaching and suggestions for its use

Before bring the explanation about styles of teaching is important to give some definition of
teaching styles according to some studies.
According to Kaplan and Kies as citied in Rahimi and Asadollahi (2012) defined that teaching
style refers to teachers’ personal behavior and the media used to transmit data or to receive it
from the students.
Fan and Ye (2007) defined the idea of style refers to an individual’s particular way of applying
his/her abilities and in this way differs from ability. They also stated that teaching style refer to a
teacher’s particular way of solving problem, carrying out tasks, and making decision in the
process of teaching.
Based on the definitions by expert above, the researcher concludes that teaching styles is the way
teachers teach, deliver information, interact with the students, manage the classroom, asses the
task and mentor the students. It also refers to the way teacher designed his/her behavior based on
the students’ need.
Grasha (1996) divided into five teaching style in his teaching style model as a description of
prevalent aspects of instructor/ trainer presence in the classroom and based on what he regarded
as metaphors of role models. He defined these categories as follows:
 Expert Style
Expert style is highlighted by teachers who have knowledge and expertise in the subject manner.
The teacher is concerned with giving correct information to students. Actually, he/she is very

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knowledgeable in the field at hand; this of course may intimidate many students. The teachers
attempt to preserve their status as an expert in front of the student by teaching in detail and depth
and by challenging students to enhance their competence. The teachers who use this style require
the students to prepare well and focus on transmitting information well.

 Formal Authority Style

The formal authority style is when the teacher always gives positive or negative feedback to the
students. This teaching style, teachers have responsible to providing and controlling the flow of
content. This style also keeps the status among the students just because of knowledge and role
as a faculty member. The teacher is concerned with establishing learning goals, expectation and
rules for the students.
 Personal Model Style

The teacher acts as a model and advice students to observe and apply a certain approach which is
effective in teacher’s point of view. This style should be done by using personal example and
teach the students by example. Teachers act as a prototype to students and how to think and
behave. This style encourages students’ involvement in the class and teacher adapt their
presentation to include various learning.
 Facilitator Style
This style focuses on student-centered approach. In this style, the teacher acts as a facilitator and
the students are responsible to attain goals for various tasks. The teacher guides students by
asking some questions, giving options, giving alternatives, and asking them to develop criteria.
This teaching style fosters independents as well as collaborative learning. In this style, the
teacher typically designs group activities which require active learning, collaborative learning,
and problem solving.
 Delegator
Delegator style focuses to shape students’ ability to learn autonomously. The teacher delegates
and places the control and the responsibility for learning on the students and/or groups of
students. Students work independently on projects or as part of autonomous teams. In this style,
the students make a choice in creating and applying their own complex learning projects while
the teacher acts in a consultative role.

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 8. The nature of L1 and L2 acquisition
 The nature of L1 acquisition: L1 sometimes is called by first language or mother
language, which means the first language that puts a child in contact with others. Definitely there
are several differences in terms of acquisition of these two languages. The first language is
acquired through passive methods. A child when is born he doesn’t mechanisms of
communication with the world, but doesn’t mean that isn’t ready to hear and understand what the
people around him are saying. The L1 is acquired by use of the imitation it happen naturally,
during the period that a child going to have contact with others.

The L1 acquisition is a result of an informal exposure is the acquired system, or acquisition, that
is, what the learner knows about a language at the unconscious level. That why we can have a L1
speaker, who speaks perfectly and in another side, they aren’t able to write what they’re saying,
that is, L1 is learned or acquired by setting process.

 Nature of L2 acquisition: Contrary of L2, when the the process of acquisition states with
the study of grammar, rules and meaning of the words.

According to Krashen (1981, 1982), he claims that L2 is a result of formal instruction learning,
when the learner he studies the rules of a sentences, grammar rules and so on, as a second
language the learner uses the knowledge and linguistically structures.

He further claims that this knowledge can be accessed by learners who are monitor users when
they: have time, focus accuracy, and know the rule. An unspeeded, discrete-point test may meet all
such conditions. Whether the learner is a child or an adult, most of SL, according to Krashen, is acquired
via the creative construction process, i.e. through the processing of comprehensible input received
in natural communication.

It is the acquired system that does most of the work in normal SL use, the learned system acting
only as a monitor, planning and editing the output from the acquired system on the rare
occasions when the three conditions for its use are met.

Nevertheless, agreeing with Dulay et al (1982), Ellis (1997) argues that if there is a difference, it
has to be accounted in terms of individual differences, which depend on effort, attitudes, amount
of exposure, quality of teaching, and plain talent. He adds that second language in this sense does
not contrast with ‘foreign’ language. He wants means by this that there is no difference between
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to learn a language in a natural setting and to learn a language in the classroom. Ellis’ view of
SLA contrasts considerably with the view held by Krashen as seen above.
Saville-Troike (2006) maintains that language can be acquired in a formal or an informal setting
without distinguishing between learning and acquisition. In this view, she supports Cook’s
(1983) and Ellis’s Explain teacher’s roles in the perspective of a resource, guider, evaluator,
planner, manager, facilitator and empowerer.

9. The stages of a lesson plan

Lesson planning is a thinking process, not just filling printed forms or templates. It is a guiding
chart for classroom acting. A lesson plan can be defined as teachers’ full description of the
instruction that is intended to be presented for learners in the classroom.
 Presenting: this stage is where teacher present the topic, objectives to the students, also, this
stage is designed to introduce the theme to the class, leading them into the lesson. Some author
calls this stage by elicitation, where the teacher can test the student’s knowledge about the topic
on the board. A good ways to test or elicit information from the students is to show the a prop,
flashcards or a PowerPoint presentation.
The objective of this step should be for the students to learn the appropriate use of key terms and
phrases and how to use them in the proper context. It will also broaden their current knowledge
on the topic.
 Practicing: is the time to practice what teacher present early. The teacher give to the
students controlled activities, giving them a support in case they do something wrong.
 Developing: this stage is the most student-centered part of the process. The activities for
this stage present the subject matter in coherent way and provide students opportunities to
participate and practice.
 Testing: in this stage, teacher provides exercise to test his student’s knowledge, are set of
activities that consist to take a position about the achievement of the lesson. This form of testing
can be through direct questions, in other words is orals exercises also is reserved in this stage
exposition of the homework. It is very important to clarify that this testing isn’t only to the
students, even the teacher can test himself to identify the application and realization his lesson
plan, to make sure that his student understood the contents by him taught.

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 10. Conclusion

Theoretical backgrounds refer to a set of knowledge and perception about the teaching and
learning process. Also comprehend a set of aspects to be observed before, in and after teaching
process or classroom.

Understanding all these theoretical aspects of teaching is very essential to teaching of language,
even for other sciences. As was mentioned early, this research work is focused to understand
organization of teaching process. And after several searching and reading is possible now claim
that:

 Knowledge refers to the facts, information or skills acquired through education or

experience. That is, knowledge is about the existence of information, ideas or skills where it can
be learned in a classroom or by experience.
Methodology is defined as the theoretical framework to support the methods chosen. It is a
perspective taken on the research, which dictates how it is approached. Methodology is a range
of proposed options according to the chosen didactic pattern.

In terms of teaching styles we can find: delegator, personal, facilitator, expert, formal authority
and so one.

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Reference
www.juicyenglish/lessonplan.com

Shormani Q. Mohammed, the Nature of Language Acquisition, Ibb University, College of

Arts, Yemen

Fan, W., &Ye, S. (2007). Teaching Style among Shanghai teachers in Primary and
Secondary Schools. Journal of Educational Psychology, (21-31pp).

Garrett Tracey, student and teacher centeredness classroom management, Rider University,
2008, (35-36pp).

TESOL international journal vol.13, 2008, (3-4pp).

Tarvin, D., L., communicative competence, November 2015, (4-6pp).

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