The principles of language teaching

What this heading covers

The syllabus names this as its own heading, and it is worth being clear what it is asking for, because candidates commonly answer it with a list of methods.

A principle is not a method. A principle is a statement about how language is learned, and it holds whichever method you use. A method is one way of organising teaching. Principles decide between methods; methods do not decide between principles.

The practical value of this heading is that it answers almost every what should the teacher do question in the paper. Those questions rarely name a principle; they describe a classroom and offer four actions, and the right one is whichever follows the principles below.

Principle, approach, method, technique

Four words that form a hierarchy, and the paper tests the order.

Term	What it is	Example
Principle	A belief about how language is learned	Language is learned by using it
Approach	A theory of language and of learning, built on principles	The communicative approach
Method	An overall plan for teaching, consistent with an approach	Communicative Language Teaching
Technique	A single classroom activity	An information-gap pair task

The chain runs principle → approach → method → technique, from the most general to the most specific. An approach is a set of assumptions; a method is a plan; a technique is what actually happens in the forty minutes. The methods themselves — Grammar-Translation, Direct, Audio-lingual, Communicative and the rest — are treated in the companion lesson on approaches and methods.

The general maxims of teaching

These are not specific to language, but the paper asks them in a language setting, so each is given here with a language example.

Maxim	Meaning	In a language class
Known to unknown	Start from what the learner already has	Begin a new text from what they know of the topic
Simple to complex	Build difficulty gradually	Simple sentences before clauses
Concrete to abstract	Objects before ideas	Real objects before words like justice
Particular to general	Examples before the rule	Four sentences, then the pattern — the inductive route
Whole to part	The whole first, then the pieces	A whole story before the vocabulary from it
Empirical to rational	Experience before explanation	Use the form before naming it
Psychological to logical	The learner's interest before the subject's order	Start from what engages the class, not from page one
Near to far	Begin close to the learner's world	Their own village before a distant city

Particular to general is the one most often asked, because it is the inductive principle that the syllabus wants applied to grammar: examples first, the rule drawn out by the learners.

The principles specific to language

1. Language is learned by using it

Time spent talking, reading and writing beats time spent hearing about language. This is the principle from which most of the others follow, and it is the one that makes "give them a task" the right option so often.

2. Meaning before form

Learners work out form from meaningful input, not the reverse. A sentence is presented because it says something, not because it illustrates a structure.

3. The natural order of the skills

Listening → speaking → reading → writing. The first two are acquired and come first; the second two are taught and rest on them. In the early classes this means an oral foundation before formal reading and writing, and it is why an option that starts a beginner on written work is usually wrong.

4. Errors are natural and necessary

An error shows the learner has formed a rule. Correcting every one, especially in speech, raises the affective filter and reduces the willingness to try. Correct what blocks meaning; let the rest wait for teaching.

5. Practice should be meaningful, not mechanical

Repetition with no meaning attached produces sound without language. A drill that the learner could do without understanding a word of it is not practice of language.

6. The learner is at the centre

Maximum learner talking time, minimum unnecessary teacher talking time. Pair and group work are the standard way of multiplying practice without lengthening the lesson — which is also the answer to "but the class is too large".

7. Multilingualism is a resource

The home language is a bridge to the school language, not an obstacle. The aim is additive — the school language is added to what the child has, not substituted for it. A child's dialect is a variety, not an error, and the three-language formula rests on the principle that early teaching should be in the language the child understands.

8. Context and purpose

Language practised for a real purpose is retained; sentences practised in isolation are not. An activity should have an outcome that someone other than the teacher would care about.

9. Integration of the skills

The four skills are taught together rather than in separate boxes. One story can be listened to, retold, read and written about — and each pass makes the next easier.

10. Individual differences

A class is not at one level. Different learners need different amounts of support, and grouping, choice of task and choice of text are the ordinary ways of providing it.

11. Exposure and volume

Some things do not grow without quantity, reading above all. A class library and time to use it do more for reading than any exercise.

12. A climate in which it is safe to try

Fear, ridicule and public correction stop production, and nothing is acquired without production. This is the affective filter stated as a teaching principle.

How a principles question is set

The question almost never says "which principle". It describes a classroom and asks what the teacher should do, and the four options usually divide like this:

• one that gives the rule or the definition;
• one that gives mechanical practice — copy it, write it ten times, memorise;
• one that punishes or singles out the learner;
• one that gives the learner something to do with the language, in a meaningful context.

The fourth is almost always the answer. When two options look plausible, prefer the one with more learner production, more meaning, and less public correction.

Worked example

Some learners in a class V English lesson hesitate to speak because they fear making mistakes. The teacher should — (a) correct every error immediately so they learn the right forms (b) ask them to write their answers instead (c) organise pair work on a familiar topic and note errors for later (d) give extra grammar exercises for practice

(a) raises the affective filter, which is the cause of the problem rather than the cure. (b) avoids the skill instead of developing it. (d) treats a speaking problem with written form practice. (c) increases production, lowers the stakes and still deals with the errors — later.

A class VII teacher wants her learners to use the present perfect accurately. Which is most consistent with the principles of language teaching? (a) Write the rule and give twenty transformation exercises (b) Have learners talk about what they have and have not done this year, then draw out the pattern (c) Ask them to memorise the formula (d) Give a test on the tense

(b) is particular-to-general, meaning before form, and learner production. The rest are the rule route.

Mistakes that cost marks here

• Answering a principles question with a list of methods. Principles decide between methods.
• Reversing the chain. It is principle → approach → method → technique, not the other way.
• Putting reading or writing before an oral foundation in the early classes.
• Choosing the option that corrects every error as it occurs.
• Treating mechanical drilling as meaningful practice.
• Choosing more teacher explanation where more learner production is available.
• Treating the home language or a dialect as an obstacle rather than a resource, or reading the aim as replacing it rather than adding to it.
• Choosing deductive presentation where particular-to-general is asked for.
• Treating a large class as a reason that pair work is impossible — it is the standard answer to a large class.

In one line

Every principle in this heading is a consequence of one fact: a language is acquired by being used for something that matters, so the teaching that works is whatever puts more meaningful language in the learner's mouth and less description of language in the teacher's.

In the classroom

Two questions answer most planning problems in this heading. How many minutes of this lesson will the learners spend producing language? And is there any reason to say these sentences other than that I asked for them?

If the first number is small or the second answer is no, the lesson is about language rather than in it, and that is the thing every principle here is pointing away from.