Andreia Tobias, Monica Recusani and Rosana Marcondes
June 2010
Introduction
During the past decades a lot of approaches and methods were developed and created. Some of them have usually not been commonly accepted; even so some methods are no longer used. With globalization, information and different factors which contributed to the need for new approaches to the language teaching, we have seen an explosion of theories, principles and hypotheses concerned the study of spoken language, pronunciation, conversation and ideas discussing the best ways to teach a Second Language (SL) in books and articles. Oral production in these current approaches and methods is a goal to be reached.
In the current communicative approaches, the Natural Approach was a new philosophy of language teaching with the proposal of incorporating the naturalistic principles which came from Terrell´s experiences teaching Spanish classes. The emphasis is on exposure, that is, input, rather than practice. There is a prolonged period of attention before the learners try to produce language. Oral production, then, is delayed.
This essay is the result of discussions about how oral production is treated in The Natural Approach and its main characteristics. The aim was to discuss the principles of the theory, the view that the authors have and how oral production happens.
The Natural Approach
Tracy Terrel developed a new philosophy of language teaching which called the Natural Approach and with Stephen Krashen elaborated a theoretical rationale and published the “The Natural Approach” based on the use of language in communicative situations and without reference to grammatical analysis.
In this approach there is an emphasis to expose the students to the target language; learners have to hear the language for a long period of time before producing language.
They also emphasize the importance of meaning, the more vocabulary you learn, the more you are able to develop the skills. Grammar is not important and the key is to get the words into sentence, so students learn grammar unconsciously, while listen to the teacher, and following this methodology, soon they are supposed to construct their own sentences reaching a natural conversation. Stephen Krashen has developed five hypotheses which the Natural Approach is based. All of them have the same focus, which is to help students to acquire the communicative skill.
1. The Acquisition/ Learning hypothesis are two different ways of developing competence in a second or foreign language. Acquisition is the “natural way” and it is an unconscious process through understanding messages and developing competence by using language in real communication in the target language. Learning is a process in which conscious rules about a language are developed and cannot lead to acquisition.
2. The Monitor Hypothesis argues that acquisition is responsible for fluency, while learning functions as the editor or monitor for the output. The monitor can function only after sufficient time is spent in SL. The conditions limit the successful use of monitor are time in which learners must have enough time to choose and apply a learned rule, focus on form in which the language user must be focused on correctness or on the form of the output and knowledge of rules in which learners must know the rules.
3. The Natural Order Hypothesis states that grammatical structures are learned in a predictable order. First learners understand, hear people saying sentences full of grammar, fixed expressions, after they speak. Errors are signs of naturalistic development process during acquisition but not during learning, the same occurs in learners native speakers. So, first you hear people talking, next you produce language.
4. The Input Hypothesis explains the relationship between input (all information that learners are exposed to in a language) and language acquisition. It involves input (acquisition and not learning). People acquire language better by understanding input. Learners have to develop linguistic competence by understanding input in order to acquire the ability to speak fluently, the more comprehensible input learners are given the faster they will become fluent. If learners get the message, the input will usually be provided automatically.
5. The affective filter hypothesis learners need a low filter that will block less input. A person with a low affective filter seeks and receives more information and talks with more confidence and in order to reduce this filter, teachers should focus on communication rather on form, and input should attract student’s attention, creating a relaxed classroom atmosphere.
The treatment of Oral Production in The Natural Approach
The Natural Approach is a method developed in order to learners acquire oral production, that is, reach the communicative skill that will be internalized through time and similar to the way they have learned in their mother tongue. The second language is a naturalistic principle, in which the students begin to express themselves in the foreign language when they feel confident. The communication will be through any communicative situation in the target language and without previous grammar studies. The main feature in oral activities is the comprehensible input, through gestures, repetitions, specific vocabularies, paraphrase and contexts.
Comparing the Natural Approach to other methods we can say that there are important differences between the Natural Approach and the older Natural Method, known as the Direct Method which focuses on teacher monologues, direct repetition and formal questions and answers, and although the use of the mother tongue was prohibited because they argue that the only way to make students to develop fluency is the direct contact with the target language. There is no focus on accurate production of target-language sentences, and no interaction among students, no group work, and the fluency is developed basically by asking and answering questions. The student participation in classroom is based on listening to the teacher in monologues and direct and formal repetitions.
It is also important to highlight that the Natural Approach rejects earlier methods of language teaching, such as Audio-lingual or Audiovisual methods in which grammar is a central component of language, and the focus is on form. In both methods students repeat sentences, memorize dialogues and learn a lot of grammar rules. The main difference between these two methods is that the Audio-lingual focus on oral exercise and audiovisual on written exercise.
In the Natural Approach, there is an emotional preparation of the student; there is no endless repetition until the student is able to speak foreign words or phrases; the focus is in comprehensible input and there are no associations with actions and objects; writing is used; there is more focus in the production of accurate sentences.
Since The Natural Approach is similar to any communicative approaches, in which also focus on how to make students to develop speaking skill. In order to reach this goal, learners will mostly have interaction activities which they can use the target language and students will not be corrected all the time, because the errors are analyzed as a natural aspect to learn a language.
To acquire a language the most important point is the oral production through inputs of words and phrases understood by learners this way they may reproduce the foreign language in a natural way, because our brain repeats what we hear or read, so the more input we receive, the better will be our preparation at the moment of speech. The study of grammar will be applied after the oral and hearing assimilation, because when we learn our native language, we do not learn grammar directly. This learning process is unconscious and natural.
However certain goals depend on learners´ needs, the skills (reading, writing, listening, or speaking) and level being taught.
Learners and teachers have some responsibilities to make the Natural Approach really work. The learner’s roles are to provide information about their needs and expectation, learn and use all the input that is taught in order to produce language, decide when to start conversation and when to update it, decide when grammar exercise should be taught and how much time they will dedicate to do it.
On the other hand the Teacher’s roles are to provide as much input as they can for learners’ acquisition, to create a classroom atmosphere that must be interesting, friendly in order to lower the affective filter learning and also choose a mix of classroom activities involving group work, content and contexts and select the material that will be used in class, based on their perceptions and student’s needs and interests.
Therefore, in the Natural Approach, the focus is on comprehensible and meaningful communication as well as the provision of the right kinds of comprehensible input provide the necessary and enough conditions for a successful teaching class and foreign language acquisition.
The practical applications of the Natural Approach in the classroom show us that the comprehension comes before oral production and the teacher is responsible for giving this comprehensive input. This way, reading and listening skills are obtained before writing and speaking. The oral production comes out of nonverbal responses, single words and combinations of two or three words, simple phrases, and sentences and at last elaborate speeches. There is a silent period and learners are never forced to speak. They only have oral production when they are completely comfortable with it. There is no correction, unless errors are severe and interfere with the communication. Learners start to talk when they are ready. The classes are focused on communicative ideas without attention to grammatical accuracy in the early comprehension and production stages because Krashen believes that formulation of rules and the study of its irregularities and complexity are not language teaching and learning, but rather is language appreciation or linguistics.
Also it is very important the environment the second language acquisition will happen. The learners must feel self-confidence, have a good self-image and be motivated in order to succeed in second language acquisition.
Conclusion
The objective of Natural Approach is to help beginners to become intermediate. It has the expectation that students will understand and communicate with speakers of the target language. Learners should be able to build sentences that make sense but not necessarily be accurate in all details of grammar.
It is worth to say that the focus is on communication, interaction among learners by using the target language, the necessary grammatical structures that are automatically provided in the input with a great contribution to learners´ acquisition, but we sure know that this approach as any other one might work out with many learners, but also may fail with others. According to Krashen, grammar study has no place in language learning, but several researches have shown that there are countless examples of how grammar study can help students´ learning.
Therefore, any method applied might have its failures, what may be a successful teaching in a group of students may not to work in other one. That is why teacher should be open and free to analyze any teaching methodology and approach and decide which one the best will be suitable for each learner and use their valuable experience in the classroom.
References
http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/AjaanRob-219408-natural-approach-methods-education-teaching-esl-efl-ell-language-learning-alm-1222574573232163-8-ppt-powerpoint/
SZYNALSKI, Tomasz P. What is input and why you need it. http://www.antimoon.com/how/input-intro.htm 12/06/2010, 8:55 pm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_a_language_teaching_method_and_a_language_teaching_approach june 16, 2010
