Scholarly record

THE MAIN TENETS OF THE В‘PRINCIPLED ECLECTICISMВ’ APPROACH TO TEACHING, OR HOW TO BREEZE THROUGH THE CELTA COURSE

N. Lavrova

Abstract

The paper focuses on some of the main tenets of the principled eclecticism approach implemented within the CELTA course – a course for adult learners who wish to receive a certificate proving that they can teach adult speakers of languages other than English. As a former CELTA trainee and a graduate of the course, the author sees her goal as threefold. First, to provide some theoretical knowledge of teaching methods within the paradigm of principled or selective eclecticism – an approach that makes use of the best of all the other approaches to teaching English, with the communicative one playing a more prominent role than the rest. Second, the author seeks to provide some ‘tricks of the trade’ – tips and advice from a personal perspective with a view to helping prospective CELTA trainees to avoid some of the potential pitfalls and to overcome initial reservations and inhibitions, which frequently plague them before subscribing to the course. Ultimately, the author hopes to help all language instructors to become not only better at teaching, but also at learning. A number of methods have been utilized to achieve the aims and objectives of the research: the meta-analysis methodology was used when evaluating the efficacy of the main approaches to teaching English; non-involved observation of both learners and teachers was applied during the author’s teaching practice on the CELTA course; cross-cultural and interlingual analyses were adhered to when comparing Russians’ and native speakers’ expectations with regard to the best teacher attributes. In accordance with the above aims and objectives, the paper is divided into several parts. In the introduction (1), some general background as to what inspired the author to write the present paper is outlined. The planning section (2) minutely describes the essential components to any workable and efficient plan. The main sections and subsections of the plan are reviewed, with helpful tips on how to make the plan work almost in any situation. In the ‘activities and their types’ section (3), the main classifications of activities are provided, including fluency and accuracy, controlled, guided, semi-free and free, the main conclusion being that the ‘task is more important than the text’ – an FLT mantra, worth remembering. In the ‘approaches to language teaching and learning’ section (4), the main approaches and paradigms of teaching are highlighted. It is emphasized that contemporary CELTA courses and trainers opt for the so-called principled eclecticism – an informed combination of the most sensible and workable tenets from all the existing approaches. The ‘teacher’ (5) section explores some of the personal and professional qualities any efficient teacher should have. A selective list of ‘a-good-teacher’ attributes is provided, based on the interview conducted with Russian learners of English. In the ‘learners’ section (6), the main types of learners are discussed, with the emphasis on primary representational systems – sensory channels unconsciously used by learners in order to perceive, process, store and retrieve information. Finally, the ‘discussion and conclusion’ section (7) summarizes some of the aspects raised in the paper, evaluates their significance and gives further tips to prospective CELTA trainees.

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