ESL teaching methods

While the time has passed throughout the decades, different linguists have questioned themselves about the first and second language learning process. What must we take into account when learning or teaching a second language? Different theories have been written about what to learn, how to learn and when to learn a second language. Throughout history, linguists have developed a variety of theories related to the acquisition and learning of a second language, how each one is given and how they should be achieved by our pupils to gain the ability to communicate in a different language to their mother tongue; there is a lot to comment and reflect on these processes considering that we should continuously be able to stimulate our students, seeking for a more significant language learning process. In addition, these theories are of great importance so second language teachers can find strategies and methods to naturally enhance learning by optimizing the process with our students. Through this paper statements will be raised as the product of the research and experience as a teacher / student, which has learnt and shared within different academic spaces.

To begin with, Steven Krashen (1982) states that “Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drills”. That is to say, any language that is learnt should be learnt through the same process as when the mother tongue was acquired; a baby does not learn a language by drilling rules, they learn it in a natural spontaneous environment. As teachers we must seek to create natural friendly communicative classrooms in which our students can prompt their acquisition and understanding as if it was their mother tongue (subconsciously). Steven Krashen (1982) explains the difference between learning and acquiring “adults have two distinctive ways of developing competences in second languages ... acquisition, that is by using language for real