PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES

“An approach is the philosophical orientation to instruction that serves as a guide for choosing among methods that are considered to be consistent with the tenets of the theory and scientifically based research that ground the philosophy” (Herrera, S. and Murry, K., 2011, p. 189). Therefore, the instructional and related decisions an educator makes regarding the manner in which practice takes place the classroom ultimately find the relationship in the chosen approach. Thus, when educators chose an approach they have to take into account theory and research, otherwise the next steps of the process of teaching could fail. The approach is the universe that contains the rest of the elements as it is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Relationships among Approach, Method, Strategy, Technique, and Activity.

Created by Mauricio Matabay

Table 1 Dominant Philosophical Approaches to Language Instruction.

Created by Mauricio Matabay