Editing Language education (section)

==Teaching foreign language in classrooms==
{{Main|Methods of teaching foreign languages}}

[[File:Spanish class.jpg|thumb|right|[[High school]] [[Spanish language|Spanish]] taught as a second [[language]] to a class of native [[English speakers]] at an [[United States|American]] [[private school]] in [[Massachusetts]].]]
Language education may take place as a general school subject or in a specialized [[language school]]. There are many methods of teaching languages. Some have fallen into relative obscurity and others are widely used; still others have a small following, but offer useful insights.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

While sometimes used interchangeably, the terms "approach", "method" and "technique" are hierarchical concepts.

An '''approach''' is a set of assumptions about the nature of language and language learning. It does not involve procedure or provide any details about how such assumptions should be implemented in the classroom setting. Such can be related to [[second-language acquisition|second-language acquisition theory]].

There are three principal approaches:
# The structural view emphasizes language as a system of configurationally related elements to code meaning (e.g., grammar).
# The functional view emphasizes language as a way to express or accomplish a certain goal, such as requesting something.
# The interactive view emphasizes language as a way of creating and maintaining social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts, negotiation, and interaction found in conversational exchanges. This approach has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.<ref name="Richards"/>

A '''method''' is a plan for presenting the language material to be learned. It should be based on a selected approach. In order for an approach to be translated into a method, an instructional system must be designed considering the objectives of the teaching/learning situation, how the content is to be selected and organized, the types of tasks to be performed, the roles of students, and the roles of teachers.
# Examples of structural methods are [[grammar translation]] and the [[audio-lingual method]].
# Examples of functional methods include the oral approach / situational language teaching.
# Examples of interactive methods include the [[Direct method (education)|direct method]], the series method, [[communicative language teaching]], [[language immersion]], the [[Silent Way]], [[suggestopedia]], the [[natural approach]], [[tandem language learning]], [[total physical response]], [[Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling]] and [[Dogme language teaching]].

A '''technique''' (or strategy) is a very specific, concrete stratagem or mechanism designed to accomplish an immediate objective. Such are derived from the controlling method, and less directly, from the approach.<ref name="Richards"/>

As well as the three-tiered view above, an additional lens is that of humanistic language teaching where a cluster of beliefs, attitudes and core concepts from [[humanistic psychology]] informs the approach, method and techniques employed. [[Earl Stevick]] and [[Gertrude Moskowitz]], often regarded as humanistic language teacher educators, considered participation and student-centeredness as central to doing language teaching and being a language teacher. Humanistic language teaching has been strongly associated with many of the interactive methods listed above.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What is HLT – Humanistic Language Teaching |url=https://hlt.digital/what-is-hlt/ |access-date=2025-03-01 |language=en-US}}</ref>