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comprehensible, slightly above the learner’s present level of competence, interesting or relevant, not grammatically sequenced,
in sufficient quantity, and experienced in low-anxiety contexts..
b. Language Teaching
According to Stern 1996: p. 20, individuals growing and living in given societies, require, to varying degrees, new
languages second languages after they have learnt their first language. The principal question is what provision must be made
by society to help these individuals to learn the second languages needed. The answer to this question is what is meant by Language
Teaching. He says that language teaching can be defined as the activities which are intended to bring about language learning
1996: p. 21. At the basic theoretical or philosopical level, there are four
central concepts which are considered to be essential building blocks of any theory of language teaching, they are concepts of:
a language, b society, c learning, and d Teaching. These four concepts are the basic minimum, the essential ones without
which any type of language teaching is unthinkable 1996: p. 24. In the first place, a language course always implies a view
of the nature of language in general and of the target language itself. How the language is treated in the curriculum, and in the
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teacher’s day-to-day work in the classroom. Is language treated mainly as sounds, or words, or grammatical pattern, or is reference
made to discourse structures and sociolinguistic appropriateness? The view of society and of language in society permeates
the approach to language teaching. A social view of language would make us conscious of the sociolinguistic text of the learners
we are concerned with. It is obvious to most teachers that the presence or absence of the second language in the wider milieu
will have a profound effect on students motivation; the opportunity to use the language and the resources of language
learning. It’s hardly possible to teach a language without having an
underlying conception of the language learner and learning. A controversial issue is whether second language learning follows
rules which are similar to the regularities of first language acquisition and whether L2 teaching should be based on such
‘natural’ first language experience. From what has been said, it is clear that the concept of
language teaching and the role of teacher are bound to be modified by changes in the other basic concepts. But the views of teaching
are not only shaped by current concepts of learning, language, and society, important though these concepts may be. They are also
influenced by educational tradition and educational thought.
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Sometimes students come to the language class with very fixed ideas of what to expect from a teacher and what they think
teaching should be like. Their view maybe quite different from the self-image that teachers themselves wish to project. Moreover,
views of language teaching are affected to some extend by
historical developments in the discipline
c. Communicative Competence.
