During the week of November 18 and 19 we have studied unit 3 'Language Acquisition and Language Learning'. First of all I would like to emphasize the difference between acquisition and learning. Acquisition refers to the “natural” way of picking up a language by using it in natural, communicative situations and learning means having a conscious knowledge about grammar, and conscious rules about a language are developed. According to the approaches and methods of the 20th century we find the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Oral Approach and Situational Language Teaching and the Audiolingual Method. Moreover, we there are some alternatives methods such as the Natural Approach, the Total Physical Response (TPR), the Silent Way; Suggestopedia and the Communicative Approach. The way to learn these methods were carried out through videos made by the class groups. Each group represented a method and taught how to carry it out in the classroom.
This teaching-learning method helped me to remember all the methods and approaches that we learned last year in a more motivating way. My classmates did a great job representing each method as if they were teaching in a real class and with real students.
As far as I am concerned, many of these methods are unfortunately still used in class even though they are quite obsolete. As future teachers, we must know the advantages and disadvantages of each method and carry out the most motivating for our students. We can also combine the methods and use each one as needed.
