Introduction

In the first part of this chapter I'll look at four main ways that people can learn and be taught. These are:

• Finding out for yourself

• Things made plain

• Periphery learning

• Use and refinement

I'll explain what I mean by each of these four, detailing how they might be used outside language lessons. For each of the four ways of learning and being taught I'll then give language class examples, first of functional expressions and then for other content areas. In the second part of the chapter, I'll look at some common instructional sequences found in coursebooks and on teacher training courses. These are:

• Test, teach, test

• Pre-, in-, post- stages for receptive skills

• PPP (Presentation, practice, production)

• TBL (Task-based learning)

Ways of learning and teaching

Finding out for yourself

What it is and how it works

In this way of learning there is a natural setting for the exposure to the new and the learner does the noticing, pretty much on their own. I'll give an example from country life.

The quickest way to learn about the effect of an electric fence used to keep cattle in or out of an area is to blunder into one by mistake when it's switched on and to get a jolt from it. This teaches you that you are made up of conductive material, that electricity gives you an unpleasant shock, and that wires that tick should be avoided.