B) The inductive approach – the rule-discovery path

What are the advantages of encouraging learners to work rules out for themselves?

·           Rules learners discover for themselves are more likely to fit their existing mental structures than rules they have been presented with. This in turn will make the rules more meaningful, memorable, and serviceable.

·           The mental effort involved ensures a greater degree of cognitive depth which, again, ensures greater memorability.

·           Students are more actively involved in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients: they are therefore likely to be more attentive and more motivated.

·           It is an approach which favours pattern-recognition and problem-solving abilities which suggests that it is particularly suitable for learners who like this kind of challenge.

·           If the problem-solving is done collaboratively, and in the target language, learners get the opportunity for extra language practice.

·           Working things out for themselves prepares students for greater self-reliance and is therefore conducive to learner autonomy.

The disadvantages of an inductive approach include:

o              The time and energy spent in working out rules may mislead students into believing that rules are the objective of language learning, rather than a means.

o              The time taken to work out a rule may be at the expense of time spent in putting the rule to some sort of productive practice.

o              Students may hypothesise the wrong rule, or their version of the rule may be either too broad or too narrow in its application: this is especially a danger where there is no overt testing of their hypotheses, either through practice examples, or by eliciting an explicit statement of the rule.

o              It can place heavy demands on teachers in planning a lesson. They need to select and organise the data carefully so as to guide learners to an accurate formulation of the rule, while also ensuring the data is intelligible.

o              However carefully organised the data is, many language areas such as aspect and modality resist easy rule formulation.

o              An inductive approach frustrates students who, by dint of their personal learning style or their past learning experience (or both), would prefer simply to be told the rule.

Research findings into the relative benefits of deductive and inductive methods have been inconclusive. Short term gains for deductive learning have been found, and there is some evidence to suggest that some kinds of language items are better 'given than 'discovered'. Moreover, when sur­veyed, most learners tend to prefer deductive presentations of grammar. Nevertheless, once exposed to inductive approaches, there is often less resistance as the learners see the benefits of solving language problems themselves. Finally, the autonomy argument is not easily dismissed: the capacity to discern patterns and regularities in naturally occurring input would seem to be an invaluable tool for self-directed learning, and one, therefore,  hat might usefully be developed in the classroom.

Examples:

The minimal pair approach is designed to overcome the lack of economy of the generative situation. By getting straight to the point, the minimal pairs presentation combines the best features of an explanation-driven approach and a discovery approach. It is also relatively easy to plan and to set up. In terms of efficacy , it relies heavily on the choice of sample sentences. More problematic still is the lack of context, which can sometimes lead students to the wrong conclusions, or, more frustratingly, to no conclusion at all.

Example 4: Using concordance data

Concordance, text analysis and concordancing software, is for anyone who needs to study texts closely or analyse language in depth. This is the most powerful and flexible software of its kind, with registered users in 52 countries.

With Concordance, you can

·        make indexes and word lists

·        count word frequencies

·        compare different usages of a word

·        analyse keywords

·        find phrases and idioms

·        publish to the web

·        ...and much more

Concordance is being used in

·        Language teaching and learning

·        Data mining and data clean-up

·        Literary and linguistic scholarship

·        Translation and language engineering

·        Corpus linguistics

·        Natural language software development

·        Lexicography

·        Content analysis in many disciplines including accountancy, history, marketing, musicology, politics, geography, and media studies

A concordance derives its power for analysis from the fact that it allows us to see every place in a text where a particular word is used, and so to detect patterns of usage and, again, to marshal evidence for an argument. Since words express ideas, themes and motifs, a concordance is highly useful in detecting patterns of meaning as well. The concordance focuses on word-forms, however -- not on what may be meant but what is actually said. It is an empirical tool of textual research. (you can use Corpus Concordance Sampler free at http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/form.html)

Example: -ing form or infinitive after „remember

Francois de Menil, told me I                                remember                       feeling that Fred was like my

lower in saturated fats - even so,                        remember                       to limit the amount of these you

slipped me a two-shilling piece.  I                      remember                        going bright red and handing it to

strong, strangely warm wind. I                            remember                        having experienced something

service team. [p] [p] Please                                  remember                        to complete the Direct Debit

that of Tom's girl. Personally, I                           remember                        leaving the track team for the

expensive heating being wasted.                       Remember                      turn your heating system off

personally. [p] I find it hard to                           remember                        to take my Pill every day and I'm

Street, London E1 9BS.  [p]                                  Remember                     to state the systems you own and

all the drinks you have this week.                      Remember                     to include all your drinks, not

sex that isn't available now. I can                       remember                        going to a dance hall and being

Take the casualty to hospital and                      remember                       to take with you any empty tablet

mark, take colour photos of them.                      Remember                     to include an object, such as a

Travel Points, it is important to                           remember                        to put your card through the swipe

And if you are boarding your dog,                    remember                        to ask your vet about protection

we are hoping someone will                                remember                        seeing her. We are extremely concerned for

with a minimum amount of care. Just                 remember                       to let All Terrain shoes dry away

the famous are already there - just                     remember                       to add your family's and friends'

Don't you                                                                remember                        asking me to fetch one?