The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching Essay

The Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching - Essay Example The target language is the main language in the classroom, and everyone learns it better by speaking it. Reading and writing in the target language follows once a lexical and grammatical foundation has been established. That means, the learner is corrected when he makes mistakes in spelling, vocabulary use, etc. The teaching of the foreign language is from simple to more complex forms. Upon learning this, some may be curious as to the Oral Approach is regarded by students if they have already been exposed to other teaching approaches. Would this approach clash with other methods students have already been accustomed to or would it supplement them? How about students with language impairments? Would the Oral Approach be able to encourage them or discourage them from speaking in a foreign language? The Situational Language Teaching approach is a language teaching approach that helps the learner understand the foreign language better by clustering lessons based on certain situations. Pi ttman (1963) clarifies the word ‘situational’ as identifiable concrete materials, pictures and relia which are used together with actions and gestures in order to demonstrate the meanings of new language words and phrases. If possible, these are used to teach a lesson on a particular situation. This eases the learner, knowing that what he is learning is about something familiar to him and can focus on the theme of the lesson. For example, simpler lessons teach about vocabulary on family will have pictures of family members. In any learning situation, it helps if the new knowledge is linked with previous knowledge. The Situational Language Teaching approach capitalizes on the learner’s own context. In the article, an example was provided on using actual objects to help students learn foreign words without necessarily identifying the object in the home language. This is effective since the objects are familiar to the students. The same may be true when the teacher teaches them a song about something they can relate to in their own context. It would be effective to use visual aids for the song so it becomes easily understandable to the learners especially if the song depicts a story. The pictures in the story may be presented while parts of the song related to the picture are sung. The theory underlying these approaches leans on the behaviourist perspective. Palmer (1957) summarizes the process of learning a language as receiving the knowledge or materials (stimulus), retaining it by repeating it both mentally and verbally, and using it in practice until it becomes a skill which later on becomes second nature to the individual. The issue now comes for people who would have deficiencies in the skills of memory and repetition. Does that mean they will be unable to learn another language due to their limitations? If these language teaching approaches are effective in the classroom, how would it translate to outside the classroom? It would be alri ght if the students live in the country where the target language is spoken since there would be several people whom they can practice their new skills with. If they live in their home country, however, where the target language is constrained within the classroom, then there would be no other people to practice with and understand what they are saying especially in the home if

Critical Review of Meet John Doe Movie Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical of Meet John Doe - Movie Review Example After this fake letter was published in the newspaper where Mitchell worked, tremendous reaction on the part of general people followed. This public reaction was noted by the newspaper’s rich and powerful publisher D.B. Norton (played by Edward Arnold). Next, a sinister collaboration starts between Ann, Norton, and other staffs of the newspaper to exploit the sensation created by John Doe’s fake suicide letter. One John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) is duped into this conspiracy and he is asked to play the role of John Doe. At first, Willoughby does this job enthusiastically. But gradually the actual conspiracy is exposed before him. Willoughby has a flux of mind and he starts clinging to the character and mission of fictional John Doe. In doing so, he shakes the very fundamentals of the news media house he was working for and throws a serious challenge before Norton. Ultimately, Willoughby becomes a real John Doe, who successfully convinces people about general good of soci ety and unmasks hypocrites like Norton and his collaborators. Ann also changes side and joins Willoughby in this great mission of John Doe. All during watching this film, I felt that there are several political linkages in this film. However, two most important linkages are being mentioned in this paper. The first one is created with the help of impressions, scenes, and symbols regarding democratic values and community consciousness. The second linkage shows that how one’s personal life and feelings might be used by somebody else to obtain political benefit. 2. In the film Meet John Doe, Capra appears to be consistently pressing ahead with his idealism having ample regard toward the spirit of democracy. After the middle part of the film, contradictions between ideals of democracy and manipulation of the system become the main foci of the film. The scene of the great John Doe Convention speaks about it. The convention is held before a large audience and thousands of people are called on to participate in it. Willoughby, in the meanwhile, finds that Norton wants to exploit the sensation created by the story of John Doe. Norton wanted Willoughby to endorse Norton as a presidential candidate for the federal elections in the garb of John Doe Convention emerging as a political party. This being the backdrop, Willoughby now tries to breakaway from Norton’s control. At this point, Capra creates a marvelous scene at the John Doe Convention. In this scene, with the help of a combination of distant and close shots, Capra shows how desperately Willoughby is going ahead into the crowd and trying to tell the truth about John Doe and Norton. With the help of special effects using montage of crowds repeatedly, Capra creates the impression of Willoughby, a desperate man, trying to communicate with thousands of people individually, intimately, and simultaneously. This scene showing the seemingly impossible task of Willoughby actually exhibits that how confusing in stitutional democracy might become. Emotional and spirited public might fail to identify the real evil behind ambitious politicians. Political propaganda can become powerful enough to overshadow the actual goals of the democratic institution. Consequently, public might go ahead and invite an â€Å"iron hand† (Capra 1941) to rule them as had happened in the countries like Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The second most intriguing scene in this film is seen