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ONE RESPONSE TO THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

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History

The Participatory Approach: originated in the late 1950s started being widely discussed in the language teaching literature in the 1980s. It is brainchild of brazilian language educator Paulo Freire.

Definitions

1. Participatory approach is a teaching strategy that incorporates themes or content area that are of interest to the learners.

2. The Participatory Approach is based on a growing awareness of the role that education, in general, and language education, specifically, have in creating and perpetuating power dynamics in society.

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o   Similarities: both begin with content that is meaningful to the students. The language that is worked upon emerges from it.

o   Differences: the nature of the content. The content of the Participatory Approach is not the content of subject-matter texts, but rather it is content that comes from issues of concern to students.

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Goal of Participatory Approach

To help students to understand the social, historical, or cultural forces that shaped a particular context, and then to help empower students to take action and make decisions in order to gain control over their   lives in that context.

A core practice of the Participatory Approach is problem posing

Problem posing involves the selection of real-life issues from the students’ lives and engages the students in an open-ended process of problem solving.

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1. Goals of teachers who use the Participatory Approach

To teach language that is meaningful

To raise the political consciousness of their students

They want their students to be empowered to use the language they are learning in order to solve political problems in their lives.

2. Role of the teacher and the role of the students

Teacher:

Dialogues with the students in order to identify problems they are having.

She (he) then looks for ways to incorporate these problems into the lessons.

These problems become the content she focuses on in language instruction.

Students:

Are encouraged to share the daily concerns of their lives with the teacher and the class.

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3. Characteristics of the teaching/learning process

The teacher leads the students in a discussion about their lives. From this discussion, she identifies problems that the class can work on as a whole. She then poses these problems to the students.

Students learn how to use language in real world situations in order to address their problems. They are encouraged to evaluate their own learning.

Knowledge is jointly constructed with the teacher asking questions and the students responding. Collaboration among students is also encouraged.

Focusing on language form occurs within a focus on content relevant to students’ live.

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5. Language Areas Emphasized and Language Skills Emphasized

Language is used meaningfully, with a focus on form subordinate to communication initially.

Ultimately, correctness of form is taught and valued so that students can be successful in using language with authorities.

Literacy is thought to be very important, although no skill is neglected

6. How is evaluation accomplished?

As much as possible the students are encouraged to direct and to evaluate their own learning so that it is connected with their lives.

7. How does the teacher respond to student errors?

Students are encouraged to self-correct. The teacher also points out student errors and provides feedback on how to correct errors.

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4. The nature of student–teacher interaction and the nature of student–student interaction

Teacher:

Is supportive of her students.

She (he) helps them advocate for themselves.

She (he) helps the students find solutions to problems while also teaching them the necessary language to understand, discuss and, address these problems.

Students:

Work supportively with one another.

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ADVANTAGES

1- Research participant’s increases their knowledge and ideas.

2- A participatory planning process builds trust.

3- A good relationship can be developed among the research participants.

4- It can establish ties between community members who normally have no contact.

5- Provides a way of solving some of the problems encountered with the other approaches.

6- Is Cost effective and sustainable.

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1. Dialoguing

Students are encouraged ‘to perceive critically the way they exist in the world with which and in which they find themselves’.

2. Problem posing

Helps students to understand the social, historical, and cultural forces that shaped the context in which they live, and then helps empower them to take action and make decisions in order to gain control over their lives in that context.

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 DISADVANTAGES OF PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

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 DISADVANTAGES OF PARTICIPATORY APPROACH

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DISADVANTAGES

1- The participatory process takes longer time.

2- Less experiences, knowledge, abilities and skills, is less benefits from the system.

3- Members of the target population may not agree with the experts about what is needed.

4- A participatory planning process takes patience and commitment on everyone’s part.

5- It is difficult to gather people and manage to attend the general assembly due to large number of people involved.