TEACHING TECHNIQUES AND INSTRUCTIONAL AIDS IN T

IN THE ESL ELEMENTARY GRADE CLASSROOM

To teach, says the dictionary (Page and Thomas, 1977) is "to impart knowledge or skill to another; to give instruction to another; to educate or to train another; to facilitate learning" (p. 337). Thus do the authors cover all angles while saying very little. Modern-day education (The goal of the school?) involves all processes "developing human ability and behavior" (Ibid, p. 112). Facilitating the acquisition and learning of a second language is essentially an educational experience rather than an instructional one--particularly in the case of children.

Education is an open system. Open systems are dynamic and exist in two environments, viz. intrinsic and extrinsic. They interact as multidirectional processes and, to quote von Bertalanffy (1950): "To perform work, the system must be, not in equilibrium, but tending to attain it." Since educational systems are living entities, i.e. processes rather than states, they "must allow some degree of tolerance" (Ibid).

In practical classroom terms, the concept of education as an open system, as opposed to instruction as a closed system, involves the constant modification of learning/acquiring behaviors as goal-directed activities affected by intrinsic as well as extrinsic factors and, simultaneously, affecting each other.

Children are, of necessity, open to the outside world, i.e. they constantly seek to exploit the e

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Language Learning, the Comprehension Approach and Total Physical Response, and the Communicative Approach. Note the use of the word approach, which involves methods, which, in turn, call upon techniques. Unfortunately, these approaches and methods paid little attention to the learning of a second language by young children. Yet, some methods and some techniques from these and other methods are particularly appropriate to teaching young children. And some methods transit information best through audio-visual aids. Approaches, methods, techniques, teams, and aids Jorden and Walton (1987) recommend the use of a team of professionally trained teachers that includes target-natives who, as authentic models of the target-language, actively and with linguistic sophistication, interact with the students in the target-language--the act component, and base-natives, who concentrate on the analysis of the target--the fact component. Jorden is director of the year-long full-time intensive Japanese FALCON program at Cornell University, and has been Visiting Professor of Japanese language and culture at Williams College. Walton is Associate Professor of Chinese language and linguistics at the University of Maryland. Their recommendation echo
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Page Thomas, Language Learning, Hansson Simon, Etc Nonverbal, Finocchiaro Bonomo, China Indeed, Krull Husson, Marshall McLuhan, English Language, Approach Note, learning language, total physical, language learning, total physical response, physical response, dictionary english, dictionary english language, community language, audio-visual aids, english language, language teaching, acquisition learning, community language learning, physical response approach, suggestopedia community language,
Approximate Word count = 2956
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)

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