SITUATIONAL STRUCTURAL METHOD - GROUP 1

Goup 4: Nguyễn Mỹ Hoài Trần Thị Bình Hoàng Thị Biên Phạm Thị Hồng Cẩm

SITUATIONAL STRUCTURAL METHOD (PPP) 1. Historical:  1960s –1980s.  This was a pragmatic version of audio-lingualism.  The key difference from the audiolingual approach was that the language presentation and practice was situationalised and was always given social meaning.  Speaking and listening were the most important skills.  This approach gave rise to the idea of PPP (presentation, practice, production).  All the techniques of audio-lingual method were used, but the famous ‘situation’ was added (mimes, pictures, sounds).

2. Theory of language:  This approach gave rise to the idea of PPP (presentation, practice, production).  PPP is not being defended on a theoretical basic, for it does not seem to have one that can be defended, but there is a growing army of dissenters (Swan, Seehouse, Foster, Sheen, Halliday) who can point to flaws and contradictions in supposed superior models such as the “Communicative” approach and TBL and question whether the alternatives are in fact better than PPP.  PPP has its defenders, not in academia but in the classroom, and ultimately it is the teacher who needs to be convinced that PPP is a spent force. There are other reasons for the survival of PPP, perhaps most importantly resistance to change. This essay will attempt to identify the key failings of PPP and to explain why this does not stop its use. PPP involves:  The purpose of the presentation stage is to “help the learner acquire new linguistic knowledge or to restructure knowledge that has been wrongly represented”, says Ellis (1988:21).  The practice stage is typically divided into two sections, controlled and freer.  The production stage is when the student must decide if and when to use the structure that has been “learnt”

3. Pedagogical 3.1. Method/ technique  A teacher selects a target or “language item” from a preordained syllabus and explains it deductively to the student.  The choice of target is based on the course book writer’s intuition of what suitable. This is based on the intuition of the author rather than on any research.  Other language is stripped away when presenting the target.  Student should not be confused and distracted by anything.

 Classroom observation has shown repeatedly that what is presented to students is seldom retained outside of an individual lesson.  P: presentation: -

Help the learner acquire new linguistic knowledge.

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Restructure knowledge that has been wrongly represented.

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Develop as new language is explained to them.

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The learner will learn what is taught in oder in which it is taught.  P: practice:

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Controlled practice: The students are repeating the target without thinking about when to use it.

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Freer practice: The student decides how the target is used and manipulated the form.

 The learner understands the form of the target language, but need practice to internalize the structure.  P: production. -

The students decide if and when to use the structure.

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Illustrate if the student has learnt the language item by using it in a natural context or activity.

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Deductive.

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Intuition.

3.2. Syllabus -

Each student tries to make sense of the foreign language that they are learning by constructing their own theories and hypotheses about his work.

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We can not know what a student is ready to learn next, it makes no sense to limit what they are exposed to.

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Grammar of the target can be adequately describe and taught.

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Real communication takes place because of what has happened in the presentation and practice stages of the class.

3.3. Teacher/student’s rule: -

Intensive and extensive listening and reading in the target language;

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First and second language comparisons and translation carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than word-for-word aimed at raising language awareness;

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Repetition and recycling of activities, such as summarizing a text orally one day and again a few days later to keep words and expressions that have been learned active;

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Guessing the meaning of vocabulary items from context;

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Noticing and recording language patterns and collocations;

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Working with dictionaries and other reference tools;

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Working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom or accessible on the Internet to research word partnerships, preposition usage, style, and so on.

4. Personal:  It is useful: -

Presentation: confident.

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Practice: remember the structure. 2

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Production: the lesion should illustrate and it depends on the context or activity.  It is fact: all students must spend a training course in high school. (Student becomes the teacher).

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