Characteristics of traditional Teaching

Teaching and Learning

For many of us, school teaching was in a style we could characterize as “traditional”. Traditional teaching comes in many varieties, but is often characterized by an emphasis on “chalk and talk” – in other words, the teacher spends quite a lot of time using the board and explaining things – as if transmitting knowledge to the class – with occasional questions to or from the learners. After these explanations the students would often do some practice exercises to test whether they have understood what they have been told. Throughout the lesson, the teacher keeps control of the subject matter, makes decisions about what work is needed and orchestrates what the students do. In this classroom the teacher probably does most of the talking and is by far the most active person. The students’ role is primarily to listen and concentrate and, perhaps, take notes with a view to take in the information. Often the teacher directs, gives orders, rebukes, tells off, criticizes, etc.

The ‘transmission’ view of the role of the teacher is relatively widespread, and in many cultures represents the predominant mode of education. Students will expect that the teacher will teach in this way, and fellow teachers may be critical or suspicious of teachers who do not. In such cases it’s important to remember that your choice of methodology is not simply the matter of what you believe to be best, imposed at any cost, but is also about what is appropriate in a particular place with particular students.

The process by which traditional teaching is imagined as working is sometimes characterized as “jug and mug” – the knowledge being poured from one receptacle into an empty one. It is often based on an assumption that teacher is the ‘knower’ and has the task of passing over knowledge to the students, and that having something explained or demonstrated to you will lead to learning – and is it doesn’t, it is because the teacher has done this job badly, or the student is lazy or incompetent.

In many circumstances, lecture or explanation by a teacher may be an efficient method of informing a large number of people about a topic. However, speaking about teaching foreign languages, it is worth pausing for a minute and questioning whether this is indeed the most effective method.

We never know how much learning is really taking place. It is tempting to imagine that if teaching is going on, then the learning must be happening; but in fact, ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ need to be clearly distinguished.

Here is a great and essential formula (one that all teachers should probably remind themselves of at least once a day!)

T=L

Teaching does not equal learning. Teaching does not necessarily lead to learning. The fact that the first is happening doesn’t automatically mean the other must occur. Leaning –of anything, anywhere – demands energy and attention from the learner. One person can not learn anything for anyone else. It has to be done by your own personal effort. No teacher can transmit understanding or skills into your head.

There is a surprisingly widespread expectation that simply being in the class and ‘listening attentively’ is somehow enough to ensure that learning will take place. This suggests a very active role for the teacher and a more passive role for the student, whose job is mainly to absorb and store the received learning. But this isn’t an accurate view of how people learn.

One fundamental assumption is that people learn more by doing things themselves rather than being told about them. Students learn by being involved into interaction, doing things, talking etc.

A second assumption is that learners are not a ‘blank slate’. They are intelligent, fully functioning humans with their own needs, wishes, life experience, home background, memories, worries, their dreams, their anger, their toothache, their moods etc. Given the opportunities, they will be able to make important decisions for themselves, which only means that teachers should teach ‘students, not the subject’. An aware and sensitive teacher who respects and listens to her students and who concentrates on finding ways of enabling learning rather than performing as a teacher, goes a long way to creating conditions in which a great deal of learning is likely to take place.

Here we move from Teacher-centered approach to student-centered approach to teaching foreign languages.