TESL 0110: Unit 2 - Deductive, Inductive, Hybrid - What's best?
I ask a lot of questions. Mostly because I do not know a lot of stuff. Unit 2 of this TESL module had a lot of good questions that made me think and since I work in Human Resources where our response often is "it depends", I would have to say that so many times in teaching the response I come up with around how to support specific learning is "it depends". And, it is not a copout, but a reality because there are so many factors on which everything in teaching and learning depends on.
It did not occur to me before this week that I could share my discussion posts on this blog and now that I am almost finished TESL I find that I wish I would have thought of this sooner! There are so many thoughts that I have written in the past two-and-a-half years that I wish I could refer to. Some, of course, have made it into this blog, but this week I feel a need to be a bit more deliberate about curating my own thoughts for my personal benefit later on. So, here is another discussion post on how a teacher might approach teaching grammar. Should you use the deductive or inductive method with learners? Really, I am not sure, but I think it depends. (did you catch that? 😉 )
Hello,
Grammar and communication are not mutually exclusive, rather they are mutually supportive - Betty Azar (paraphrased). Based on this theory of mutual support, I think that there is a place for both deductive and inductive presentation styles in the classroom, but it may depend on the ability of the learner. Learners who have more knowledge about the grammar structures may be more likely to scaffold their own learning into the induction of a new rule or at least identify something that is different than they previously learned. I think induction would require a strong "noticing" skill and not all learners have that skill innately and it also needs to be taught. I'm not sure about these ideas, and I'm open to discussion on them. If you have ideas around that, please share.
Deductive - "...the rules are simply presented to the learner, who then goes on to apply them through the study and manipulation of examples...." Thornbury, pp 22)
Inductive - "...require the learners first to study examples and work out the rules for themselves..." (Thornbury, pp 22)
When I looked at the examples in the course content, it was easier for me to follow the deductive content than the inductive content. I think in a class of beginner learners, it would be useful to begin with the deductive, and then proceed slowly to inductive learning over the course of several lessons to see if what was introduced through deductive learning was captured by the student through further inductive exercises. Should there be difficulty in the outcomes or the teacher identifies struggles, there would be a need to reinforce the structure that is to be learned.
I'm very concerned about using a fully inductive approach. If you ask someone to learn by making mistakes when there is only really one right way to do things, then you're potentially setting them up to fail. In almost any subject, there are infinite ways to fail or get something wrong, and usually only one way, or maybe a few ways, to get it right. Why would you waste someone's time, reinforce incorrect behaviours, and let someone learn it wrong. I think if you use this method wholly, then the teacher has abdicated their responsibility to teach. There are some things that I let my children experiment with when they were younger and learning, but there are other things where the rules matter. Cooking has more grace in it than baking. Planting seeds has more grace than planting plants (seeds are rarely planted upside down for instance, whereas plants will not grow if you put the top in the ground with roots above ground). Sometimes what you are trying to teach has more options, other times the rules are there for a reason and need to be followed or it will not work out. I think it's important to know the difference. Please don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that I fully know the difference, but I do think there is one and I'm working on learning what it is.
Looking forward to your thoughts!
Dana
References
Azar, B. (2012, October 30). Teaching Grammar in Today's Classroom—Part 1 [Youtube video].
Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YJwbnQOguEk
Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.
It did not occur to me before this week that I could share my discussion posts on this blog and now that I am almost finished TESL I find that I wish I would have thought of this sooner! There are so many thoughts that I have written in the past two-and-a-half years that I wish I could refer to. Some, of course, have made it into this blog, but this week I feel a need to be a bit more deliberate about curating my own thoughts for my personal benefit later on. So, here is another discussion post on how a teacher might approach teaching grammar. Should you use the deductive or inductive method with learners? Really, I am not sure, but I think it depends. (did you catch that? 😉 )
Hello,
Grammar and communication are not mutually exclusive, rather they are mutually supportive - Betty Azar (paraphrased). Based on this theory of mutual support, I think that there is a place for both deductive and inductive presentation styles in the classroom, but it may depend on the ability of the learner. Learners who have more knowledge about the grammar structures may be more likely to scaffold their own learning into the induction of a new rule or at least identify something that is different than they previously learned. I think induction would require a strong "noticing" skill and not all learners have that skill innately and it also needs to be taught. I'm not sure about these ideas, and I'm open to discussion on them. If you have ideas around that, please share.
Deductive - "...the rules are simply presented to the learner, who then goes on to apply them through the study and manipulation of examples...." Thornbury, pp 22)
Inductive - "...require the learners first to study examples and work out the rules for themselves..." (Thornbury, pp 22)
When I looked at the examples in the course content, it was easier for me to follow the deductive content than the inductive content. I think in a class of beginner learners, it would be useful to begin with the deductive, and then proceed slowly to inductive learning over the course of several lessons to see if what was introduced through deductive learning was captured by the student through further inductive exercises. Should there be difficulty in the outcomes or the teacher identifies struggles, there would be a need to reinforce the structure that is to be learned.
I'm very concerned about using a fully inductive approach. If you ask someone to learn by making mistakes when there is only really one right way to do things, then you're potentially setting them up to fail. In almost any subject, there are infinite ways to fail or get something wrong, and usually only one way, or maybe a few ways, to get it right. Why would you waste someone's time, reinforce incorrect behaviours, and let someone learn it wrong. I think if you use this method wholly, then the teacher has abdicated their responsibility to teach. There are some things that I let my children experiment with when they were younger and learning, but there are other things where the rules matter. Cooking has more grace in it than baking. Planting seeds has more grace than planting plants (seeds are rarely planted upside down for instance, whereas plants will not grow if you put the top in the ground with roots above ground). Sometimes what you are trying to teach has more options, other times the rules are there for a reason and need to be followed or it will not work out. I think it's important to know the difference. Please don't misunderstand - I'm not saying that I fully know the difference, but I do think there is one and I'm working on learning what it is.
Looking forward to your thoughts!
Dana
References
Azar, B. (2012, October 30). Teaching Grammar in Today's Classroom—Part 1 [Youtube video].
Retrieved from https://youtu.be/YJwbnQOguEk
Thornbury, S. (1999). How to teach grammar. Essex, UK: Pearson Education Limited.
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