Potential Cultural Resistance to Pedagogical Imports by Guangwei Hu

Task-based Instruction by Peter Skehan

The End of CLT: A Context Approach to Language Teacher by Stephen Bax

Upon reading the articles for class I could not stop thinking about the way I go about teaching both literature and writing to my students, and how much it is like the Context Approach instead of the CLT.

One aspect I loved about the Skehan article was that he brings up interaction and how “interaction, in itself, is not enough, and insinuation of a focus on form into interaction is very vital” (2). This reminds me so much of how I would go about teaching writing. In the teaching of writing both form and interaction with peers is so important to help a writer progress. Both form and interaction as well help the student to focus on meaning and to convey information to one another which is another aspect Skehan discusses. Like the article says feedback arises when meaning is problematic—this cannot be truer when it comes to reading students papers and making comments. My comments on students’ drafts are usually comprised of questions I have for them. Also I love that he brings up the issue of planning. Planning is another huge aspect of writing and the teaching of writing. Some of our best ideas and best writing comes from the prewriting or planning stage.

Looking at the Stephen Bax article though, when he talks about the differences between the CLT and the Context Apporach this is where our readings really grabbed the attention of my inner English teacher. The main components of the Context Approach as discussed by Bax are:

o   Consider the whole

o   Methodology is just one factor in language learning

o   Other factors may be more important

o   Other methods and approached may work

I feel like this is the mindset of English teachers. As an English teacher I am constantly considering the whole and the big picture. I look at things much more subjectively than teachers in other content areas.  These articles and the Context Approach really made sense to me and I could definitely see the issues with CLT.