Theories for Teaching English to Adults
- The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis states that the errors a language learner will make in a second language can be predicted from the structures of the learner's native language. For instance, a speaker of a language that lacks articles such as "the" and "a" will have difficulty learning to use them in English. Teachers of English as a second language (ESL) should, therefore, understand the structures of students' native languages and use this information to identify potentially problematic structures when planning lessons.
- Communicative language teaching (CLT) is driven by the theory that people acquire new languages only by using them in context, not by memorizing words or learning rules in isolation. Thus, CLT emphasizes developing students' ability to understand, and make themselves understood, in a second language. Students learning English under CLT are encouraged to communicate in English as much as possible and as early as possible in their training, and even to "experiment" with unfamiliar structures that they may use incorrectly. CLT generally avoids traditional drills and grammatical analysis in the classroom.
- The Natural Approach to language teaching, developed by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell in 1983, is based on the theory that people naturally acquire the structures of languages in a fixed order and that language instruction should reflect this order. In the classroom, for instance, this means beginning students are taught to hear and understand simple expressions in English before they are required to speak. This is analogous to the way babies acquiring their first language hear and understand language long before they can speak.
- The dominance of CLT engendered other, related teaching approaches. Among these is content-based learning (CBL), in which language instruction is combined with instruction in another discipline, such as math or history. The extensive use of immediately relevant and usable language in CBL is thought to facilitate English use and understanding. CBL is used widely in adult education, particularly in preparing ESL students to make the transition to regular English-language university work.
