Richards & Rogers, Chapter Two

Chapter Two began by defining the term “approaches,” which was way more complicated than I expected. An approach is, in essence, an underlying theory about the nature of language and the process of learning. That is, they ask, “What are the psycholinguistic and cognitive processes involved in language learning?” and “What are the conditions that need to be met in order for those learning processes to be activated?”

The authors talk about three theoretical views of language: functional (language as a vehicle for expression), structural (traditional view dedicated to mastery of elements of the system) and interactional (related to interpersonal relationships).

The chart on page 33 summarizes the hierarchy: Method is the overarching term that includes approach, design and procedure. As mentioned, approach is the theory of the nature of language and the theory of the nature of language learning. Design is the related curriculum. It considers syllabus, types of learning and teaching activities, learner roles, teacher roles and the role of instructional materials. And procedure is what you can see during teaching: techniques, practices, behaviors observed when the method is taught.

A Reflection on My Dance Teaching

During the last class, we were assigned to be part of groups of three, and each person taught something. Some people taught what they didn’t know (palm reading) and others taught what they knew well (Sua, a former professional ballet dancer, taught that). Lacking time to research a new subject, I fell back on Irish dance, since I’ve taught plenty a beginning reel. I had a lesson plan that looked like this:

• Brief history: the legend of where Irish dance comes from
• Three main forms
• Different dances — reels, jigs, hornpipes — come from different rhythms
• Does anyone mind trying to learn a step?
• Here’s a reel
• Begin with one leap-two-three: walk it, demo it, try it as a single step one at a time, give them the mnemonic of “two forward, one back”
• Explain that eight repeats form the first basic part of a reel, try as group, demo it with music, all do it together with music

Ahhh, the best-laid plans. I started my explanation according to plan and got as far as teaching the first step. I hadn’t pre-selected my music. I scrolled through the list, wasting precious of my allotted ten minutes. I just couldn’t find a reel. The first thing I found was a light jig, so I scrapped my old plan and went with that instead.

From there I pretty much stuck with the program based on what my “students” seemed to need. By the end of the time, they each could do the first step on their own. I added on another step at the end, to round out the eight bars, and that was a little harder because it was quicker, and because the step is enough similar to the first that it’s confusing. I showed them the step to music and next they tried gallantly, but of course it was very hard for them to keep up with the speed of the music.

What Would I Do Differently?

Rather than begin with a little context for Irish dance (“interesting, but I wanted to get to the step since we didn’t have much time”), I’d demo a step to music first.

I think I would clarify at the outset exactly what we were going to do: watch me do a step, you practice it, you do it to music… or whatever. I found that helpful when one of my partners did that, and think I’d like to adopt it.

The teacher asked us to consider the “I, Thou, It” model. The It (the subject matter) was my focus, and then the I (I won the North American Irish Dance championship) but I really didn’t consider in advance the Thou (my students). Part of that was oversight, because I was just thinking about communicating my message. Part was because I didn’t know who my students would be; we were assigned groups only just before our lesson. However, I think my attention to Thou kicked in as soon as I found out who my students were. One was Sua, the professional ballet dancer, so I guessed she’d pick it up quickly. I paid a little more attention to David, whose dance background I don’t know. But in watching him, I saw he learned quickly and was getting the step correct. So I don’t think I’d change that. As discussed in class, we often don’t know in advance who is the Thou during planning phases, so we have to be highly attentive and adaptive on the fly.

Maybe it’s a good idea to play a little of the music first, to set the mood and demonstrate the rhythm we’re working with.

Aside from those differences (and given the short timeframe) I don’t think I’d do anything else differently.