'All They Seem to Do Is Talk and Play Games

'All they seem to do is talk and play games - that's not learning a language. I bet they don't even know what the future perfect is.' What other opinions would you expect from someone with views like this, and how would you refute his arguments?

SECTION B – Question 6 A person with the view that within a communicative classroom ‘all they seem to do is talk and play games [which is] …not learning a language.’ Would probably also hold the view that language should be taught within the boundaries of a ‘grammar-translation method’, which is also born out by the further comment ‘I bet they don’t even know what the future perfect is,’ maybe because he/she is a teacher their self, or maybe because this was the way they learnt a language. Such views do not necessarily need to be disproved nor proved but rather, they need to be considered as an integral part of learning a language. A classroom conducive to language teaching needs to incorporate a variety of language teaching methods and approaches, and to disregard one in place of another is not necessarily the best way to go. An informed and effective teacher would have the knowledge, inclination and ability to pull from a number of methods and approaches that best suit his/her students’ needs. Although some people are of the view that talking and playing games may appear to be trivial and not illustrating a knowledge of the language, others would say that knowing a language is being able to use it outside of the classroom. In order to do this, students need to be given the opportunity of using the language freely within the classroom. They cannot do this by simply repeating and drilling grammatical rules, wherein, they may be more apt in talking about the language but less able to use the language. On the other hand, if students were merely asked to speak and use language freely without first having been taught it, they would not have the knowledge ot the means to do so. A more integrated approach however, would allow for a more progressive lesson and allow for the grammatical explanations, the repetition and the drilling, but also provide motivation for student autonomy within each and every lesson. A well structured lesson should progress from teacher input to student controlled practice, to freer practice and finally providing an opportunity for complete free use of the language by students. There are many experienced and professional teachers out there, who adhere to the views of ‘grammar translation methods.’ This does not make them ‘bad’ teachers. They have successfully taught a language to thousands of students, but perhaps with different and a more communicative approach, there lessons could have been more interesting, inspiring and fun. The most important thing to remember is that no single approach or method is superior but rather we need to adapt and integrate from them all.