A Review of Pivot Oprators of Theoritical Models on Which Language Teaching and Learning Hinge Upon

A Review of Pivot Oprators of Theoritical Models on Which Language Teaching and Learning Hinge Upon

J.O. UDEIGWE Phd¹, Noke, Ugochukwu Chinedu², Uche, Ifeanyi A Phd³

¹Department of English / Literature Abia State University Uturu

²Department of English and Literary Studies Enugu State University of Science & Technology Enugu

³Reneissance University, Enugu

DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2024.807223

Received: 31 May 2024; Revised: 16 June 2024; Accepted: 21 June 2024; Published: 20 August 2024

ABSTRACT

Most of the innovations in teaching method in language teaching are made to make learning pleasurable exercise. For learning to take place, the positive attribute of the teacher, the learner, the textbook and the classroom must interact. The age group of the learners: the beginners, the intermediates and the advanced must be paramount. Constraints that mediate against the flow of learning from the part of the teacher, the learner and the classroom must be noted. Learning is a by-product of teaching and the beneficiaries are the learners. Learners assimilate the language instruction from the teacher by a conscious and a deliberate effort over a time. The work targets at the threepatide levels of group of people in the school. The beginners, the intermediate and the advanced levels in the school system.

Language teaching is like every other commercial enterprise or business. It is commercial because the livelihood of the practitioners depend on it. The economic futures of the learner also depend on it. For instance, a credit pass in English language is a passport for employment and recruitment as trainees both in the private and public sector of the economy. It’s a measure for a university admission.

Key words: innovation, Teacher, Learner, Classroom, material resources and theoretical model.

INTRODUCTION

An assessment on which teaching and learning hinge upon are, the teacher, the materials (resources), the learner and the classroom. The teacher is the transmitter of language skills, He brings into the class – room his teaching competence determines by his personality methodogical skills. Language textbooks and other teaching aids serve as a resource materials that form a bridge between the teacher and the learner as the two use these materials both inside and outside the classroom, especially the language textbooks. On the otherwise, the learning ability of the learner is measured by his age personality, and the resources.

The interactive session that occur in classroom by the language teacher, the learner and language textbook and other learning resources is known and called teaching and learning. We should always expect and welcome some constraints which may impinge on the classroom, on the teaching and learning process to affect the learning outcome on the various groups that include: the beginners, the intermediate and the advanced groups, which are the three segments of class of people in the school that form the target of this work.

In other to determine the level of these constraints on the learning outcome, an evaluation of the learning outcome in the form of text and examination are to be conducted on the learners to determine the achievement rate of each group of learners in order to determine whether or not the overall goal of teaching and learning process have been achieved.

The diagram below is what we term the pivot oprators of theoretical mode.

The above diagramme is described thus:

The teacher who is the transmitter of skills brings to the classroom his personality, his skills and competence to meet the resource materials and the learner. The learner on the other hand brings to the classroom his personality, age and learning ability. The “age” on the part of the learner represents the various groups of learners at any given time. We have the beginners, the intermediate and advanced learners. The third point is the tools or the resource materials which may be situated in the classroom. Therefore the interaction of the teacher and the learning with the resource materials is what is known and called teaching and learning. The after mat of teaching and learning of the teacher and the learner is known as the “language effect”.

And finally, to determine the achievement rate of the learning effect, a kind or a system of evaluation must be in place, either through a test or a full blown examination as the case may be.

Language Teacher

A good teacher of language must be equipped with the following three basic principles from the training. See Brown (2000)

A pedagogical skill – the command of language he teaches. He should be grounded with methods, techniques, class activities and assessment techniques for resource materials and students progress in learning.

Knowledge acquisition course such as measurement and evaluation, curriculum design and implementation etc.

He should also have theoretical knowledge in linguistic description of language to be taught and theoretical foundation of language acquisition and learning.

According to Brown (2007) and Gass and Salinker (2008), the teacher interacts with the learner in the classroom guided by the language textbooks and other teaching aids to make the language learner proficient in such language skills such as understanding, speaking, reading and writing in a target language.

The language teacher is the transmitter of message code, the code instruction on the language interaction to achieve its terminal goal, the language teacher brings to bear his personality (intelligence, confidence and emotional maturity) his pedagogical skills (his ability to speak the language like an educated speaker of the language. His ability to write in acceptable style and understand many major form of writings. He should have the ability to correct learners writing and to direct them appropriately. Should have the ability to adjust teaching methods and techniques in the classroom. Should have ability to inspire confidence in the weak learners. Should motivate unwilling learners and ability to asses progress of learners introspectively or overtly as the case may be.

LANGUAGE TEACHING

Idealy, the language teaching is that interaction between the teacher the learner and resource materials in the classroom in order to effect a change in behavior in the learner as to achieve learning. The language teaching involves three sets of groups thus; see National Policy on Education (2004)

1. The beginners = (Primary level)
2. The intermediate = (The secondary)
3. The advanced = (the tertiary level)

To achieve effective teaching and learning, the three groups must be respected and be taught accordingly. The envisaged change in the teaching process is one that takes time to mature. It is deliberated and conscious act that requires patience, tacts, dedication and so on. The teacher should be conscious of the three main groups of learners to be taught in order to succeed. The three groups include;

1. Young children in the primary school
2. Adolescents in the secondary school
3. Adolescent and adults in the tertiary institutions.

The teacher has the tax of ensuring that the three set of groups are taught in their respective classes separately. They are young children with all learning aids that make teaching interesting, the secondary school classroom where the language textbook is the major materials and the tertiary classroom where the textbooks and sometimes language laboratory are made available.

The classroom becomes interesting and pleasurable when the language teacher uses methods, techniques and activities that appeal to the learner. For example the infant or young children love pictures and mostly coloured ones.

The young ones love moving around in the class, working in groups with the teacher, perform activities, imitating the teacher and responding in chorus whenever a question is asked. On the other hand the adolescents and the adults love textbooks , are culturally relevant and addressing their language needs and provide relevant and realistic exercises.

The language teacher, especially on the adolescent and adult classroom should demonstrate high level of language mastery as shown by how he describes and explains language structures and concepts and answers questions. And above all the language teacher should understand the psychology of his students and sometimes enliven the classroom with jokes appropriately.

LANGUAGE LEARNER

The learner of the language is the recipient of the message code, which is instruction in language skills. The language instruction from the teacher is assimilated by the learner through conscious, deliberate effort overtime. With constant practice the assimilated knowledge produce change in language habits which is learning proper.

The National Policy on Education (2004) posit that: in Nigerian context, we have various groups of learners. The groups are categorized according to the level of education. We have the primary, the secondary and the tertiary sections.

The primary and secondary level groups aim at general purpose language: speaking, listening, understanding, reading and writing while tertiary group level, especially in the case of use of English language course, aim at specific purpose skill, to equip them with the tool with coping with the demand of academic work. However in the case of foreign language teaching, the goal is the same as those of primary and secondary school group (general purpose performance).

These groups of learners have their personalities that may either enhance or inhibit language learning (Strevens, 1985). For instance, primary school learners, on the one hand, are enthusiastic. They learn easily. They are easily demoralized by failure and inspired by success. They are easily bored and have short attention span, mimic easily, unruffled by making errors in public, affected by their relation with their teacher. At worst they become sullen learners and at their best a joy to be with and teach.

On the other hand, secondary school learners are easily detracted from learning by the sight of a member of the opposite sex or by the roars of a football match and by students rallies of different kinds.

A mere mention of such words as love, drugs, abortion, etc, may set their minds daydreaming and thus drown learning for a long time. It is an attitude that may positively or negatively affect learning. At their best they are the best and fast learners. At times they become militant, there are cases where secondary school students have beaten up their teachers without any justifiable reasons.

The tertiary level language learners have their own personalities too. Their goal for learning a language is a great motivator. May we use the use of English course to characterize the personality of the tertiary level language learner. The group falls into two major categories; those who see the course as a waste of time and those who take the course to improve on their cumulative point average (CPA).

Those who see the course as a waste of time are less enthusiastic while those who are motivated to improve on their grades point average are enthusiastic learners.

Learners may be categorized as to whether or not they have a natural disposition to learn a language (aptitude). Those who have the aptitude for language learn faster and achieve better results than those who do not have. For instance, those who speak many languages have the aptitude for language study whereas those who find it difficult to speak more than their mother tongue do not have such an aptitude. We have so far discussed the age group and personal traits of the Language learner. The age and the personality traits of the language learner constitute his learning ability which he brings into the language classrooms for learning.

LANGUAGE LEARNING

For learning to take place, the positive attribute of the teacher, the learner, the textbook and classroom must interact. Language learning is synonymous with the message code in communication theory. It is designed to bring about a change in language habit of the learner. It is a process. It is time consuming and deliberate.

The beginners are transformed from ignorant user of target language to an intermediate user and from intermediate user to advanced users.

Language learning may be inhibited by the constraints noted in the following:

1. Teacher
2. Learner
3. Classroom
4. Textbooks (resource materials)

Stevens (1985) maintains that the teacher becomes an impediment to learning if the learners are discouraged by him because of his estimation of himself. This happens when the teacher has a low perception of his job as ill paid, frustrating and unrecognized by the society. The exhibition of the following traits by the teacher in the classroom may also inhibit learning seriously. If the teacher lacks a good command of the language and he suffers from hesitation and uncertainty in the control of the language in a form recognizable by the learners. When a teacher is in the habit of committing errors in his control of grammar and its usage inhibits learning as well.

On the other hand, the learner may be an impediment to his own learning if he is bored, fatigued and unmotivated. It is on record that “interest” is a key for learning. If the learner is not interested in the teacher and the subject matter, the chances of learning is far fetched. The teacher has a duty here, the teacher makes sure that he enliven the class and make them ready for his lessons. Learning also may be impaired, when the learners are distracted, tensed and nervous especially during the examination. Fear is an enemy, very destructive, learners must be confident in themselves by preparing very well for the examination, that is the only thing that words-off fear, anxiety and nervousness during the examination.

The textbook is another constraints or impediment in smoot learning. When a textbook is unrealistic, that is incapable of being used by the teachers and learners. When a textbook is incomprehensible, unavailable and expensive learning gets distorted. When a textbook is irrelevant to the learners language needs, uninteresting and being culturally irrelevant, monotonous in terms of topics and intellectually unchallenging. When the textbook is irrelevant to the learners language needs, uninteresting and being culturally irrelevant, monotonous in terms of topics and intellectually challenging. When a textbook is not capable of making the learner feel, he is enjoying his learning and making some progress. The textbook must not be compatible with expected method and techniques desired by the teacher.

Finally the classroom, the classroom is a centre where the threepatide elements; the teacher, the learner and the textbook meet to interact for common goal. The classroom may not be conducive for learning if overcrowded. The classroom must have a manageable number of pupils or students for effective learning to take place. The classroom must be well ventilated, there must be enough windows and doors to allow air to move freely. There must be enough light and shouldn’t be allowed to be dark.

CONCLUSION

In a teaching learning situation for instance, Bell R. T. (1981) the teacher takes more of failures or successes in any given situation because of his peculiar role as the head of the other factors. It is the teachers responsibility to engage the interest and the intellect of the learner with whatever means available to him. Therefore should possess the required knowledge for transferring language skills. If teaching is good we assume that learning will also be good. The teacher has to be innovative in making his choices and devising his own procedure which best suits the students interest and specific learning situations. Our position here is that the teacher should possess the ability to express himself with exactitude and precision in any given situation. This is because when teaching is geared towards the students needs and interest, motivation increases and the result is optimum achievement by the learner. Variables from other factors that might inhibit learning, like the classroom, the learner and the resource material, are to be manipulated and controlled by the teacher for the overall interest of learning achievement.

REFERENCES

1. Bell R. T. (1981) An introduction to Applied linguistics: Approaches and methods in Language teaching. London: B.T. Batsford.
2. Brown H. D. (1980). Principle of language learning and teaching. Eglewoods Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
3. Brown H. D. (2000). Principle of language learning and teaching. San Francisco State University.
4. Gass and Salinker, L. (2008) Second Language Acquisition: An introductory course: New York: Routledge.
5. Halliday, M. K. A. et al (1964). The linguistic sciences and language teaching. London. Longman.
6. National Policy on Education (2004) Abuja: NERDC
7. Strevens, Peter (1985). New orientation in the teaching of English. Oxford. Oxford University Press.