Advancing Language Acquisition by Developing Departmental Cooperation
John De Mado
There is a distinct difference between an ‘approach’ and a ‘method’. An approach is philosophical in nature and pertains to a teacher’s belief system or, as written in Alice Omaggio Hadley’s Teaching Language in Context, a teacher’s organizing principles.
Conversely, a method reflects the arsenal of instructional techniques that a teacher deploys to implement that belief system or those organizing principles.
ACTFL (The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) has recurrently reminded us that, for a language department to be successful, it must be philosophically cohesive to the greatest degree possible. What exactly does that mean? … Does that imply that all members of a department must teach the same way? … If so, is that actually a realistic expectation? … I have consulted with language departments in every state in the USA as well as with a number abroad. One thing that I have found to be indisputable is the fact that, of nature, we language teachers are a very independent lot. We are collegial to one another up to a point; that point of separation pertaining to the methods that we employ and deploy on a daily basis. We are very deferential to one another when the topic arises. It is, I suppose, professional courtesy. Yet, it may be just that deference that is deterring us from our stated mission of delivering to the USA, and thus to the world, a generation of American born students who can function in at least one other language.
Moreover, is it realistic to actually expect each language teacher in a given language department to teach the same way? I am inclined to say no. The way one teaches is influenced by several factors: Continue reading →
