THE PRINCIPLES OF
TEACHING ENGLISH
by : Abdullah Farih,
M.Pd
The principles of teaching are
very important of English environment. They also influence of succeeding
English learners. By implementing and understanding of principles of teaching
English, the learners will understand and master English well. According to
brown (2010) there are twelve kinds of principles on teaching English that are
include in three categories,
they are: (a) Cognitive Principles; (b) Affective Principles, and (c)
Linguistic Principles.
Cognitive
Principles
The cognitive principle relate
to five kinds of principles, they are: (1) automaticity, (2) meaningful
learning, (3) the anticipation of reward, (4) intrinsic motivation, and (5)
strategic investment.
First principle is automaticity.
Principle of automaticity include under this rubric the importance of
subconscious absorption of language through meaningful use, efficient and rapid
movement away from a focus on the forms of language to a focus on the purpose
to which language is put, efficient and rapid movement away from a
capacity-limited control of a few bits and pieces to relatively unlimited
automatic mode of processing language forms, and resistance to the attemption
to analyze language forms.
Second principle
is meaningful
learning. It “subsumes” new information into existing structures and memory
systems, and the resulting associative links create longer retention.
Meaningful learning will lead toward better long-term retention than rote
learning.
Third principle
is anticipation of
reward. The anticipation of reward can be stated human being are universally
driven to act, or “behave”, by the anticipation of some sort of reward-tangible
or intangible, short term or long-term-that will ensue as a result of the behavior.
The fourth principle is
intrinsic motivation. The most powerful rewards are those that are
intrinsically motivated within the learner. Because the behavior stems from
needs, wants, or desires within oneself, the behavior itself is self-rewarding:
therefore, no externally administered reward is necessary. If all learners were
intrinsically motivated to perform all classroom tasks, we might not even need
teachers! but you can perform a great service to learners and to the overall
learning process by the first considering carefully the intrinsic motives of
your students and then designing classroom tasks that feed into those intrinsic
drives.
The fifth is strategic
investment. Successful mastery of the second language will be due to a large
extent to a learner’s own personal “investment” of time, effort, and attention
to the second language in the form of and individualized battery of strategic
for comprehending and producing the language.
Affective
Principles
The affective principles relate
to four kinds of principles, they are: (6) Language ego, (7) Self confidence, (8)
Risk taking, and (9) The language culture connection.
The language ago principle might
also be effectionally called the “warm and fuzzy” principle: all second
language learners need to be treated with affective tender loving care. As
human beings learn to use a second language, they also develop a new mode of
thinking, feeling, and acting-a second identity. The new “language ego,”
intertwined with the second language, can easily create within the learner a
sense of fragility, a defensiveness, and rising of inhibitions.
Self confidence is learners’
belief to themselves or self-esteem. The other word I can do it! Principle.
Learners’ belief that they indeed are fully capable of accomplishing a task is
at least partially a factor in their eventual success in attaining the task.
The next principle of affective
principle is risk-taking. Successful language learners, in their realistic
appraisal of themselves as vulnerable beings yet capable of accomplishing
tasks, must be willing to become “gamblers” in the game of language, to attempt
to produce and to interpret language that is a bit beyond their absolute
certainty.
The Language and culture are
intricately intertwined. Whenever you teach a language, you also teach a
complex system of cultural customs, values, and ways of thinking, feeling and
acting.
Linguistic
Principles
The last category of principles
of language learning and teaching centers on language itself and how learners
deal with these complex linguistic systems. The linguistic principle consists
of three kinds of principles, they are: (10) The native language effect, (11) Interlanguage,
and (12)
communicative competence.
The native language of learners
exerts a strong influence on the acquisition of the target language system. While
that native system will exercise both facilitating and interfering effects on
the production and comprehension of the new language, the interfering effects
are likely to be the most salient.
Second language learners tend to
go through a systematic or quasi-systematic developmental process as they
progress to full competence in the target language. Successful interlanguage
development is partially a result of utilizing feedback from others.
Communicative competence is the
goal of a language classroom, instruction needs to point toward all its
components: Organizational, pragmatic, strategic, and psychomotor.
Communicative goals are best achieved by giving due attention to language use
and not just usage, to fluency and not just accuracy, to authentic language and
contexts, and to students’ eventual need to apply classroom learning to
previously unrehearsed contexts in the real world.
In conclusion, there
are twelve principles of teaching English that is divided three categories. The cognitive principle:
(1) automaticity, (2) meaningful learning, (3) the anticipation of reward, (4)
intrinsic motivation, and (5) strategic investment. The affective principles:
(6) Language ego, (7) Self confidence, (8) Risk taking, and (9) The language
culture connection. The last is linguistic principle: (10) The native language effect, (11) Interlanguage, and
(l2) communicative competence.
