Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty, Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
Henry Ford
Nowadays having knowledge any foreign language is significance and considerable in our life career. In the meantime it is demanded from us having great motivation, strong memory and hard-working ability. Every language has got its own fundamental grammatical methods, approaches, rules and techniques. As we know there are many types of methods of teaching languages. For example, Indirect, Direct, Grammar Translation Method (GTM), Audio Lingual Method, (ALM) Silent way,(SW) Community Language Learning (CLL), Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Total physical Response (TPR) and so on. In order to provide an effective class every teacher should choose appropriate methods to conduct effective classes. Each teacher has its own teaching way, methodology. In teaching process there are a lot of theoretical approaches that have been developed to promote the students’ success in learning new information. Although in teaching sphere there are two main reasoning, such as inductive and deductive. As far as I know, the deductive approach represents a more traditional style of teaching. Because grammatical structures or rules are dictated to the students first. Thus the students learn the rule and apply it only after they have been introduced to the rule. For example, if the structure to be presented is Modal Verbs, the teacher would begin the lesson by saying, ‘Today we are going to learn how to use the modal verb structure’. Then, the rules of the modal verb structure would be outlined and according to the structure the learners would complete exercises, gaps in a number of ways, to practice using the structure. Basically, it is rule driven class, because the teacher is the center of the class and is responsible for all of the presentation and explanation of the new material. We can say without doubt, it is “Teacher centered” class. On the other hand, while teaching the text book the teacher translates every word, phrase from English into their mother tongue or learners are required to translate sentences from their mother tongue into English. Such kind of exercises in translation are based on various items covering the grammar of the target language. What’s more, the teacher can easily assess whether the students have learnt what he has taught them. Even teachers who are not fluent in English can teach English through this method, because while explaining new topic, they can switch to their mother tongue. Speech is neglected, grammar and vocabulary are taught in isolated form, not in context. (Roggers p.11–12).
In contrast to deductive approach, in the inductive approach represents a different style of teaching where the new grammatical structures or rules are presented to the students in a real language context. The students learn the use of the structure through practice of the language in context, and later they realize the rules from the practical examples. It means from specific to general. For example, if the structure to be represented is the preposition the teacher would begin the lesson by showing a picture of flat and saying, “ This is my room and it is comfortable. There is a book on the table, there are six chairs near the table.” The teacher would then provide many examples using students and items from the classroom, hotels, living rooms or anything within the normal daily life of the students, to create an understanding of the use of the structure. After each of the various examples students practice the structures meaningfully in small groups or pairs. Fluency is emphasized than accuracy. Because according to Bob Adamson,
The deductive method is often criticized because:
a) It teaches grammar in an isolated way;
b) Little attention is paid to memory;
c) Practice is often mechanical.
It’s a good opportunity in order to improve the learner’s communicative skills. With this approach, the teacher role is to provide meaningful contexts to encourage demonstration of the rule. As Benjamin Franklin mentioned: “Tell me, then I forget, teach me then I remember, involve me and I learn”.(Rebecca L. Oxford p. 9) Yes, if we involve our learners to learn the language through different types of activities, they’ll learn with a great interest. As we know practice makes perfect. You can explicitly confirm the rules the students have discovered. You will not have told them these rules, you will merely guided the class towards them. So it also promotes increased student participation and practice of the target language in the classroom, in meaningful contexts. The use of the inductive approach has been noted for its success in classrooms world-wide, but its disadvantage is that it’s sometimes difficult or students who expect a more traditional style of teaching to induce the long rules from context and that it is more time consuming. Except that, with the help of this method students will improve their transferable skills, which they use in a real life situation, such as:
communicative skill
↓
problem solving skills
↓
decision making skills
↓
time management skill
↓
autonomy skill
↓
critical thinking skills
↓
presentation skills
↓
leadership skills
During the lesson, teacher should use some of these skills in their activity, in order to wide learners’ horizons. For example, organizing different communicative activities, such as role play, simulation, chain story, information gap activities, jigsaw reading and so on.
Problem solving skill- Teachers should distribute case study which reproduces a situation and which often involves dramatization, or group discussion.
F.ex: You have been selected for the TV program “Survivor”. You will spend 90 days on a desert island somewhere in the Pacific. You will have to find food and shelter for yourself and survive there. You were nominated to choose other 3 people who will live with you out of 6 candidates. You should read their profiles and decide who the best candidates are and justify your choice.
Decision making-in the wider process of problem solving, decision making involves choosing between possible solutions to a problem. F.ex: case study
According to my experience, I found out some differences between Inductive and Deductive Reasoning.
|
Deductive |
Inductive |
|
1.Particular to general |
|
2.Rule discovered |
|
3.Learner centered |
|
4.Subconscious |
|
5.Fluency is emphasized |
|
6.Active participants |
|
7.Group work |
|
8.Autonomy |
|
9.Problem solving |
|
10.Associative |
According to the analysis, one can easily guess the differences and come to the following conclusion:
Inductive reasoning
Starts with facts and details and moves to a general conclusion
Is probabilistic (is based on probability)
The conclusions can be strong or weak
Can be proved false.
Exercise 1. We have seen 30 white swans. Therefore, all swans are white
Exercise 2. Basketball players are tall. John is a basketball player. John must be tall.
Deductive reasoning
Starts with a conclusion and then explains the facts, details, and examples
Links premises with conclusions
If all premises are true and clear, the conclusion must also be true.
Exercise 1. All dogs are mammals.
All mammals have hearts. All dogs must have hearts.
Exercise 2. All birds can fly. An ostrich is a bird. All ostriches can fly.
Taking everything into account, we can say that the deductive method is the mode of using knowledge, and the inductive approach is the mode of acquiring it.
Actually, the beliefs, assumption, feelings of teachers are the air of the learning environment, and they determine the quality of life within it, because, the best teacher teaches from the heart, not from the book.
References:
- Hewett, A. P. R. 1984. A History of English Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Stern, H.H 1992. Issues and options in language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Rebecca L. Oxford Language Learning Strategies. Heinle publishers
- Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers(2001) Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press (p. 11–12)
- Adrian Doff (2002) Teach English. Cambridge University Press
- www.livescience.com
