2008, Vol.9, No.2

Modern English Education 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.55

pISSN : 1598-0782 / eISSN : 2586-6141
https://journal.kci.go.kr/meeso

Beginning with the distinction between Method, Methodology and Methodics, the three integral components of any language teaching program, this paper presents a brief overview of the evolutionary process that language pedagogy has witnessed over the past 100 years. In particular, this paper explores the developmental changes in language teaching methods, focusing on the factors that cause such changes in order to gain insights for future directions for language teaching. Some of the important factors influencing the development of teaching methods are discussed under the five headings: Linguistic theories, social aspirations, learner-related factors, teachers' experiences, and physical contexts. A particular factor or a set of factors may have resulted in a particular change at a certain time, while other factors might have dominated the language pedagogy scene at another time. A shift from one kind of method to another which was congruent with the development in linguistic theory may also have been independent of the linguistic advancement. The advent of communicative function oriented approaches to language teaching, for instance, has been attributed primarily to the so-called ‘teachers' experiences’ which include teachers' frustrations with the structural syllabus and pattern practice methods of drilling structures isolated from their actual context of use. It is considered as teachers' eclecticism and innovations in language teaching in order to contextualize the structures learned in isolation.

Through literature review, the current study explored on gender roles for human language acquisition and learning, particularly second language acquisition, and on the formation of gender-specific language behaviors throughout human history. For this purpose, children’s first language (L1) development and afterward adults’ second language (L2) learning were investigated from the perspective of sociolinguistics. In the light of both anthropological and second language acquisition (SLA) studies, research suggested that cognitive differences between males and females may not stem exclusively from inherently natural and static neurolinguistic preferential networks, but the socialization process undergone by L2 male and female learners may play a much stronger role in the shaping of cognitive networks than what has been previously admitted. Some pedagogical implications, regarding the use of learning strategy and the management of classroom interaction, were taken based on the current review paper.

This paper investigates the present perfect use in the writings of advanced L2 speakers of English. Although the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic interpretation and use of English present perfect is often in the center of debate in linguistics, not much focus has been given to its learning of this. In the present study, each writing sample was examined for tokens of present perfect forms and their use with adverbials as well as their relationship with the lexical aspect. In addition, relationship with the lexical aspect and adverbial use was investigated. The results of this study suggest that by this stage in the learning process, L2 learners do not always associate the use of present perfect with adverbials or lexical aspect. Learners are more likely to use adverbials with achievements when marking the verb forms with present perfect. However, it is inconclusive as to whether learners have approximated the level of native speakers in using English present perfect. To further answer the question, more studies with additional data are needed.