Natural Approach (NA)

          Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell developed the Natural Approach in the early eighties (Krashen and Terrell, 1983), based on Krashen's theories about second language acquisition.  The approach shared a lot in common with Asher's Total Physical Response method in terms of advocating the need for a silent phase, waiting for spoken production to "emerge" of its own accord, and emphasizing the need to make learners as relaxed as possible during the learning process.  Some important underlying principles are that there should be a lot of language "acquisition" as opposed to language "processing", and there needs to be a considerable amount of comprehensible input from the teacher.  Meaning is considered as the essence of language and vocabulary (not grammar) is the heart of language.

          As part of the Natural Approach, students listen to the teacher using the target language communicatively from the very beginning.  It has certain similarities with the much earlier Direct Method, with the important exception that students are allowed to use their native language alongside the target language as part of the language learning process.  In early stages, students are not corrected during oral production, as the teacher is focusing on meaning rather than form (unless the error is so drastic that it actually hinders meaning).

        Communicative activities prevail throughout a language course employing the Natural Approach, focusing on a wide range of activities including games, roleplays, dialogs, group work and discussions.  There are three generic stages identified in the approach: (1) Preproduction - developing listening skills; (2) Early Production - students struggle with the language and make many errors which are corrected based on content and not structure; (3) Extending Production - promoting fluency through a variety of more challenging activities.

        Krashen's theories and the Natural approach have received plenty of criticism, particularly orientated around the recommendation of a silent period that is terminated when students feel ready to emerge into oral production, and the idea of comprehensible input. Critics point out that students will "emerge" at different times (or perhaps not at all!) and it is hard to determine which forms of language input will be "comprehensible" to the students. These factors can create a classroom that is essentially very difficult to manage unless the teacher is highly skilled. Still, this was the first attempt at creating an expansive and overall "approach" rather than a specific "method", and the Natural Approach led naturally into the generally accepted norm for effective language teaching: Communicative Language Teaching.  

Culture

          Generally culture can be divided into two categories. Firstly it is so called achievement culture, also referred to as ‘big C’ culture, and secondly it is behaviour, or ‘small c’ culture. The former emphasizes the elements of the culture of the communities where the language studied is spoken, such as geography, history, literature, art, music and institutions. The latter became “culturally-induced beliefs and perceptions, especially as expressed through language, but also through cultural behaviours that affect acceptability in the host community” (Stempleski, Tomalin 1993: 6-7). In other words, behaviour culture deals with body language, clothes, food, humour, table manners, superstitions, proverbs and sayings, etc. It seems impossible to say which culture, whether ‘big C’ or ‘small c‘, is more important for the learners of the language. It goes without saying that both are essential, and they ought to be treated equally. At the same time they have to be integrated into as many language lessons as possible. 

Teaching culture

        According to Stempleski and Tomalin, the following “seven goals of cultural instruction” are suggested:

1.      To help students to develop an understanding of the fact that all people exhibit culturally-conditioned behaviours.

2.      To help students to develop an understanding that social variables such as age, sex, social class, and place of residence influence the ways in which people speak and behave. 

3.      To help students to become more aware of conventional behaviour in common situations in the target culture. 

4.      To help students to increase their awareness of the cultural connotations of words and phrases in the target language.

5.      To help students to develop the ability to evaluate and refine generalizations about the target culture, in terms of supporting evidence.

6.      To help students to develop the necessary skills to locate and organize information about the target culture.

7.      To stimulate students´ intellectual curiosity about the target culture, and to encourage empathy towards its people.

Social Service

Song

Song for children

Part 1 / Part 2

 

Social Service

Social Service ที่วัดป่าดอนหนาด

Social Service ที่โรงเรียนบ้านส้มโอง

Christmas and Halloween

English Camp