Wednesday 27 December 2006

Discourse and Content in Language Teaching

I have been reading "Discourse and Context in Language Teaching" by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain.

The book shows how the choice of grammar and lexis is affected by the discourse level and the implications of this for language teaching.

Celce-Murcia & Olshtain talk about the importance of 'Pragmatics' and how the speaker's intention and context affects the meaning of what they say.

The affects of discourse on phonology are analysed (intonation, rhythm, etc.) as in the effect of discourse on grammatical forms.

Celce-Murcia & Olshtain make it clear that all new grammar forms must be presented and tested in context.

Complete texts can be used to present vocabulary, however the authors concede that there are different ways of teaching vocabulary.

The authors investigate the different skills and suggest that we use both top-down and bottom-up strategies in reading, listening, writing and speaking and suggests ways that all these strategies (particularly the top-down) can be taught.

The final part of the book suggests how this can be implemented in the design of syllabuses and curriculums.

Borrowed from the Library at Tower Hamlets College, Arbour Square, L0ndon E1

1 comment:

Phil Bird said...

I put all that up, and then didn't really mention how I can apply what I've read in my teaching.

The most important point that I can apply to my teaching is the importance of context for any language that I present.

I feel that this is one of the things that has improved in my teaching since I started the course. I now always make sure that the context in which the language is to be used is well established and that, for example, all written work is produced in some kind of recognisable form.

I think I can work more on refining the way I train students in techniques to support the four skills.