1. Conceptual Basis
of Second Language
Teaching and Learning
Nunan, D. (1999). Second language learning
and teaching. Boston: Heinle and Heinle.
Dr. Nilsa Lugo Colón

2. Concept Map
Traditional vs.
Humanistic New view of Learner
Experimental
Psychology language needs
Learning
Communicative
Humanistic
Language
Tradition
Teaching (CLT)
Deductive,
inductive learning
Conceptual
Basis of SLTL
Negotiations Defining
Defining Learner Learner
Task ladder as a relative learner-
tasks contributions Input
concept centered
Task-based Learner-
Negotiated
language centered
Curricula
learning Education
Learning by Developing Adult
doing learner education
skills at
negotiation

3.  Humanistic Psychology
• Attempts to make sense of experience at the
point where sociology and psychology
intersect.
• Captures the fact that humans are
simultaneously looking inwards and operating
outwards.
• Any attempt to understand what motivates
behavior must necessarily capture the
individual in relation to the group.

4.  Experiential Learning
• Facilitates personal growth
• Helps learners adapt to social change
• Takes into account differences in learning
ability
• Is responsive both to learner needs and
practical pedagogical considerations
• Builds a bridge from the known to the new by
taking the learner’s perceptions and
experiences as the point of departure for the
learning process

5.  Communicative Language Teaching
• In the 1970’s, a richer conceptualization of
language began to emerge.
• Language was seen as a system for the
expression of meaning, as opposed to just a
system of abstract syntactic rules.
• Aim of language teaching is to help learners
develop skills for expressing different
communicative meanings.
• CLT led to the emergence of task-based
approaches to language teaching.

6.  Learner-centered Education
• In the learner-centered classroom, key
decisions are made with reference to the
learner:
 what skills will be taught
 how skills will be taught
 when skills will be taught
 how skills will be assessed
 Learner Input
• Learners are systematically educated in the
skills and knowledge they will need in order to
make informed choices about what they want
to learn and how they want to learn.

7.  Negotiated Curricula
• The views of the learners as well as the
pedagogical agenda of the teacher are
satisfied through a process of give-and-
take.
• What gets taught and how it is learned
are arrived at through discussion and
compromise.
• Learners move along a negotiation
continuum.

8.  Negotiation Continuum
Step 1: Make instruction goals clear to
learners.
Step 2: Allow learners to create their
own goals.
Step 3: Encourage learners to use their second
language outside the classroom.
Step 4: Raise awareness of learning processes.
Step 5: Help learners identify their own
preferred styles and strategies.
Step 6: Encourage learner choice.
Step 7: Allow learners to generate their won
tasks.
Step 8: Encourage learners to become teachers.

9.  Task-based Language Learning
• Target tasks – enable learners to use
language to do the hundred and one
things people do in everyday life, at
work, at play, and in-between.
• Pedagogical tasks – classroom work that
involves learners in comprehending,
manipulating, producing, or interacting
in the target language.

10.  Three Principles of Task Design
• Authenticity Principle
 Sample of spoken and written language that have not
been specifically written for the purpose of teaching
language.
• Form/Function Principle
 Design tasks that require learners to use inductive
and deductive reasoning to develop their won
understanding of the relationship between from and
function.
• Task Dependency Principle
 Each succeeding task in the instructional sequence
flows out of, and is dependent on, the one that
precedes it.
 Sequence tasks from reception to production
 Listening and reading comes before speaking and
writing.