My teaching approach

After years of teaching EFL to beginner-level Japanese students of all ages, studying what scholars have written on the subject of how we acquire first or second languages, as well as reflecting on my own experiences learning English and Japanese as an immigrant, I find that I've come to settle on the following ideas -- mostly borrowed from Brett Reynold's page, who in turn borrowed them from Michael Lewis' book The Lexical Approach (1993, Hove:LTP) -- whenever I'm either in the classroom carrying out a lesson or, beforehand, at my desk drawing up something complex like a syllabus or simple like a lesson plan.

view of language

• structural/holistic/non-linear
• lexis dictates grammar
• language tends to exist in 'chunks' i.e.. vocabulary items are often longer than one word
• speech has primacy over written language
• spoken language and written language are very different
• metaphor is part of everyday language

  view of language learning

• massive amounts of comprehensible input are needed
• comprehension comes before production
• building an extensive vocabulary is the basis for successful language learning
• extensive reading is a source of a great deal of language exposure and imperative in an EFL setting
• multiple exposures to language items are almost always needed
• judicious, imaginative drill is helpful
• intensive reading is a useful supplement to extensive reading
• concepts with little ambiguity, such as letter-sound correspondences and simple word meanings, are best taught explicitly
• grammar explanation is rarely effective
• students form their own grammar rules
• in learning to read, explicit teaching of phonological awareness and alphabetic principles are necessary for many Japanese students
• errors are valued
• at the initial language learning stages, successful language is more important than accurate language
• correction is rarely effective
• accurate production does not indicate mastery
• that which is seen as defective as terminal behaviour may be seen as successful if viewed as intermediate behaviour
• stress has negative effects on long term learning
• personality and motivation are significant determinants of whether a learner is successful or not