An approach refers to the general assumptions about what language is and how learning a language occurs. A method is a practical implementation of an approach. Procedures are the step-by-step measures to execute a method. Finally, techniques refer to the actual moment-to-moment classroom steps that lead to a specified outcome.
Table of Contents
The Difference Between Approach, Method, Procedure, And Technique
English Language Teaching (ELT) terminology can sometimes be confusing. This post aims to describe the differences between approach, method, procedure, and technique. It is important for us teachers to be informed about what exactly each of these terms means.
For the difference between methodology and method, see this post:
Methodological Organization Of Teaching Practices
Methodology informs teachers about different ways to organize teaching practices. Harmer (2001) suggests that there are four levels of organization at the level of methodology: approach, method, procedure, and technique. The following description is inspired by this framework. Many elements of this framework are also discussed by Anthony (1963) and Richards and Rodgers (1986).
Before describing our framework for the organization of teaching practices, let’s briefly review Anthony’s and Richards & Rodgers’ models.
The following table shows how approach, method, procedure, and technique have been viewed by Anthony (1963) and Richards & Rodgers (1986):
| Model | Description |
|---|---|
| Anthony’s Model | Approach: |
| – Theory of language | |
| – Theory of learning | |
| Method: | |
| – An overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material, no part of which contradicts, and all of which is based upon, the selected approach | |
| Technique: | |
| – The actual implementation in the language classroom | |
| Richards and Rodgers’ Model | Method: |
| → Approach | |
| – Theory of language | |
| – Theory of learning | |
| → Design | |
| – Objectives | |
| – Syllabus type | |
| – Activity types | |
| – Learner roles | |
| – Teacher roles | |
| – Role of materials | |
| → Procedure | |
| – Techniques | |
| – Practices | |
| – Behaviors |
Simplification Of The Model
To simplify the above models, approach, method, procedure, and technique are viewed in the following hierarchical model:
- Approach: Provides theoretical assumptions about language and learning, informing methods.
- Method: Should not contradict the approach on which it is based.
- Procedure: Ordered sequences of techniques aligned with the theoretical assumptions a method aims to implement.
- Technique: The actual moment-to-moment classroom steps that achieve a specified outcome.
Let us describe each concept in more detail!
Approach
An approach refers to the general assumptions about what language is and how learning a language occurs (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). It represents the sum of our philosophy about both the theory of language and the theory of learning. In other words, an approach to language teaching describes:
- The nature of language
- How knowledge of a language is acquired
- The conditions that promote language acquisition
Method
A method is a practical implementation of an approach. A theory is put into practice at the level of a method. It includes decisions about:
- The particular skills to be taught
- The roles of the teacher and the learner in language teaching and learning
- The appropriate procedures and techniques
- The content to be taught
- The order in which the content will be presented
It also involves specific syllabus organization, choices of materials that will boost learning, and the means to assess learners and evaluate teaching and learning. It is a sort of organizing plan that relies on the philosophical premises of an approach.
Procedures
Jeremy Harmer (2001) describes procedures as “an ordered set of techniques.” They are the step-by-step measures to execute a method.
A common procedure in the grammar-translation method, for example, is to start by explaining the grammar rules and exemplifying these rules through sentences that the students then translate into their mother tongue.
According to Harmer, a procedure is “smaller than a method and larger than a technique.”
Technique
Implementing a procedure necessitates certain practices and behaviors that operate in teaching a language according to a particular method. These practices and behaviors are the techniques that every procedure relies on.
Techniques, in this sense, are part and parcel of procedures. They are the actual moment-to-moment classroom steps that lead to a specified outcome.
Every procedure is realized through a series of techniques. They could take the form of an exercise or any activity needed to complete a task.
For instance, when using videos, teachers often use a technique called “silent viewing,” which consists of playing the video without sound and asking students to figure out what the characters are saying.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, according to this framework, an approach informs methods with both the theory of language and the theory of learning. Methods are actual implementations of approaches—they are theories put into practice. Procedures, in turn, are informed by methods. They are ordered step-by-step events that have specified outcomes and rely on techniques to achieve desired results.
References
- Anthony, Edward M. 1963. Approach, Method, and Technique. English Learning. 17: 63-67. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
- Brown, H. Douglas (1987). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
- Harmer, J. (2001). The Practice of English Language Teaching. Essex, England: Longman.
- Richards, Jack C., and Theodore S. Rodgers (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
External links: