ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF PHNOM PENH

INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 402

REFLECTION PAPER

Reflection Chapter: Teaching Approaches and Instructional Issues

Lecturer: SAMLENG Phearun (SLP)

Class: A4.2

Written by:

CHHUN Ven Yuory

HOUT Haksreng
LY Por
MOUSOEUR Yamilash

Academic Year: 2019 - 2020

I. Introduction
 This reflection paper is a paper that reflects what we have learned and enclosed the
chapter that we are most interested in. We have chosen chapter five which is teaching
approaches and instructional issues because we find this chapter the most useful for our
teaching. It is beneficial for us not only in the classroom, but we can also decide on which
teaching approach is appropriate for us to use in our upcoming actual classroom. The following
sections include the summary of the chapter, the application which we have learned from
chapter to put in the actual practice, and the last one is the conclusion of overall reflection.

II. Chapter Summary

Language teaching has been around since ancient times. One of the first known to
support teaching a new language such as classical Greek and Latin was found a long time ago.
This chapter summary will deal with two chief points—the teaching approaches that happen
chronologically, and the instructional issues in the classroom. The language teaching approaches
have been implemented throughout the course of history and regions. Since the middle ages up
until the nineteenth century, the classical method or Grammar Translation Methods (GTM)
derived from the teaching of Greek and Latin was used. GTM goals are to read and write a
language. In order to do these, students have to memorize the grammatical rule, a list of
vocabulary, as well as translating into L1. Later on, in the absence of GTM, the Direct method
was introduced in the late nineteenth century. This approach was developed in the extension of
GTM, but giving more attention to oral expression. During the mid 1900s, the Audiolingual
method was used in the need of World War II. This method relied mainly on different types of
drills. From the behaviorist view, it can connect between stimulus and response. The twentieth
century came, several more methods have been established. Methods such as Suggestopedia,
Total Physical Responses, Communicative language teaching, Task Based Learning and Post-
method are focused on communicative-based learning. It means that they prioritize more on
fluency rather than accuracy. The concern of this chapter is instructional issues in the classroom.
As teachers, we should shift attention to emphasize on the meaning. Teachers can do it in many
various ways firstly through inputting enhancement, underlining or bold type. In addition, to
shift students’ attention to grammatical structure, a researcher suggests three ways to process
instructions such as providing formal information to target structure, providing strategies, and
inputting the activity. Correcting students’ answers can be both explicit and implicit. One of the
most used methods is to correct implicitly by recasting the students’ answers. Moreover,

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technology was mentioned to be the material to aid students in learning and communicate with
native speakers.

III. Application
In chapter five, teaching approaches and instructional issues are mainly discussed. These
two points are crucially beneficial for teaching and learning. Teaching approaches and
instructional issues can be used to apply into real learning and teaching context. In the first half
of the chapter, different teaching approaches are raised; there are many details and techniques
related to those approaches. One way which teachers can take advantage of the approaches for
real teaching context is the implementation of interesting techniques. Many approaches are
mentioned along with teaching techniques which are helpful for students. Teachers might
struggle with initiating new techniques to use in the classroom; however, the book offers many
good techniques. For instance, there are so many interesting techniques in suggestopedia; such
as, role-play, classroom set-up. Some teachers would find these techniques new to them; as a
result, they can implement those alluring techniques in their classroom. Teachers will encounter
various types of students and classrooms; hence, they have to be flexible when it comes to
changing their teaching style. Students do not have the same needs or learning styles; therefore,
it is important that teachers get to know about diverse teaching approaches. For example,
students from class A wish to communicate well after finishing the course. Teachers have to
come up with an approach which can help them to improve their communication.
Communicative language teaching would be a good approach as students get to focus on
meaning rather than form in this approach. Students in class B feel anxious to learn language;
they believe learning English is challenging. Teachers can put suggestopedia into use.
Suggestopedia promotes a relaxed and stress-free learning environment. Teaching approaches
can be used to apply in real context. Teachers would not expand their knowledge on how to
teach students if they do not get to explore those teaching approaches.
Classroom instructional issues also play a significant role in facilitating both teaching
and learning. Several essential instructional issues raised as parts of discussion. The first issue is
the focus on form. In the communicative language classroom, a large proportion of attention is
paid to meaning and meaningful conversational exchanges, and less on detailed linguistic
features unless further necessary assistance is required. Though the communicative language
classroom focus has received more popularity than the previous periods, results have been

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found that learners in communicative language classrooms do not fully achieve target language
competence due to less exposure to focus on form. Hence, teachers should direct more of
students’ attention to detailed linguistic patterns rather than solely focus on making
conversations based on memorization rather than on understanding of each unit and structures
it takes to convey meaningful yet flexible conversational exchanges. In addition, using
techniques either input enhancement or input flooding should be taken into consideration as
well. In order for “input” to become “intake”, students’ attention and noticing need to be
attracted by exposing students to a substantial number of linguistic features and directing their
attention on the target input. However, teachers should consider avoiding exposing students to
too much input flooding as it can become less effective in instances where learners attempt to
apply their L1 linguistic features. Producing errors while learning is inevitable. There are ways
for teachers to make corrective feedback which are proven to be effective and feasible. Recast
which is popular among teachers is claimed to be less successful than explicit correction due to
the fact that recast can be perceived by students as being provided alternative ways to convey
the message rather than being corrected by their teachers. Another classroom instructional issue
is the concern over the role of L1 in the classroom. While Direct Method is used to be claimed as
an effective teaching approach since it gives students so much exposure to the target language to
the extent that students’ L1 are ignored, there is evidence proved that students can benefit from
receiving information and being allowed to use L1 as well. In the modern era, technology yields
a tremendous positive impact on students' language learning. New electronic devices can serve
as a worthwhile facilitator to students while learning language since it is convenient for students
to access any resources available on the internet and promotes students' learning autonomy.
Therefore, teachers should not hesitate to adopt this effective means to enhance students’
learning as well as improving one’s teaching capability.

IV. Conclusion

After learning the chapter and putting it into possible application, we have a strong
belief that teachers can be the one that finds and uses appropriate approaches with proper
methods as well as techniques to implement in the right needs of students’ learning. Teachers
can also apply and take advantages of the given approaches and instructional issues so that they
can be determined in their teaching which is no longer a barrier to enhance their teaching-

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learning classroom. In conclusion, it is worth it for us teachers to consider which approach is
better for students rather than getting stuck in a traditional teaching style without any
improvement of the teaching-learning environment.