TESOL Methodology － Thoughts and ideas based on a teacher's experience

In fact, I didn't pay much attention about the definition of following terms in educational literature before; method, approach, and technique. However, I came to understand the different meaning of each. Richards & Rogers (2001) stated that approach is a concept of teaching and it is categorized in a big flame: in other words, theory. Then, method is how educators use/present teaching materials based on the approach. Also, technique is a mean to implement methods, for example, exercises and activities. Nevertheless, it is still confusing for me to identify which word I should apply to a certain situation.  Traditional teaching methods and humanistic approaches are below.                                      "Su mmary of Language Teaching Methods Chart ” by University of Maryland Baltimore County is licensed under   CC BY 4.0 It is said that educational practitoners are n...

It was unexpected, rather, surprising, for me that culture teaching should be taken into consideration when we teach English. According to McKay (2003), there are three levels of culture in teaching English: Source Culture , Target Culture , and International Culture .  This categorization is based on the concept of Kachru's Circle (1989), which classified cultures into three levels, depending on how the English language is treated in society. For example, a culture in a country where English is spoken as a native language is Target Culture. On the other hand, in a country where English is spoken as a foreingn language, their culture is Source Culture. International Culture indicates all the other cultures in non-English speaking countries. McKay (2003) states that teaching culture matters because learners of English come from different countries, which means their cultural backgrounds are different, so are situations where English is used.   Peter Neff and John Rucynski Jr. (...

Dear English teachers and educators, This is the first post on my new blog: TESOL Methodology－Thoughts and ideas based on a teacher's experience. I'm so excited to start my blog for sharing my knowledge and experience as a practitioner of English education.  The objectives of this blog are the following; (1) cascading knowledge that I have acquired in TESOL Methodology, summer course 2023 from Online Professional English Network, (2) sharing my experience as an English teacher, (3) enhancing skills and techniques of both of us － visitors of this web page and me, through exchanging thoughts and ideas. As written above, I participated in the professional English educators' course online this summer 2023, provided by  the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UBMC), as part of the Online Professional English Network (OPEN). The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by FHI 360. At the beginning of ...