INTRODUCTION

According to Eric Gill (2013), every teacher has her or his own style of teaching. And as
traditional teaching styles evolve with the advent of differentiated instruction, more and more
teachers are adjusting their approach depending on their students’ learning needs. Learning
is not an agreed phenomenon and evidence to support is often complex and contested.
Teachers have ideas about learning that are informed by their experience and by theories
models that contain concepts and beliefs. Teaching Methods are strategies used in
conjunction with learning approaches that promote, engage and enhance student learning.
Coherence, developing autonomy and progression in student learning are key considerations
when selecting teaching methods. This task requires me to find a suitable video clip on the
teaching of English Language in a Malaysian classroom and write a critical analysis the
language learning theories applied in the classroom, the language teaching approaches used,
the language skills were taught effectively and the assessment were done efficiently.

LANGUAGE LEARNING THEORIES APPLIED IN THE CLASSROOM

Abela (2009) said that several theories have been proposed for learning and there are
number of concepts in learning which are essential components for an understanding of these
theories. Based on the video of teaching process that I choose, there are two learning theories
that the teacher applied during the learning and teaching process taken place. The first theory
is Constructivism. According to Fosnot (1995), constructivism is a theory of learning that has
roots in both philosophy and psychology the essential core of constructivism is that learners
actively construct their own knowledge and meaning from their experiences. The title of my
video is “A Balance Diet”. In the video, the teacher asked the students to categories between
healthy and unhealthy food. The teacher brought few types of food that being put in a box.
The teacher then showed the food to the students and asked them the name of the food. The
students then will use their prior knowledges to categorise the food into healthy and unhealthy
food. The constructivism theory can be seen when the students categorised it correctly even
though the teacher still didn’t teach types of healthy and unhealthy food.

The second theory is cognitivism. Baron and Byrne (1987) said that cognitive theorists
believe that learning involves the integration of events into an active storage system comprised
of organizational structures termed schemata. Mayer (1981) claimed that although all
cognitive theorists examine these functions to discover more about human learning and
behaviour, they often differ regarding emphasis. Some approaches deal with detailed
analyses of information-processing skills, while others focus on mental models or cognitive
growth and development. The cognitivism theory can be seen when one or the students
named Adelia made mistake by categorising the healthy and unhealthy food wrongly. The
teacher then corrected them by putting the food into the correct basket and the students then
learned from it.

THE LANGUAGE TEACHING APPROACHES USED

According to Asher and James (1982), Methods are the combination of techniques that
are used and plasticized by the teachers in the classrooms in order to teach their students and
approaches are the philosophies of teachers about language teaching that can be applied in
the classrooms by using different techniques of language teaching. For example, if a teacher
has an approach that language is the communication and learning a language is in fact
learning the meanings, functions and uses of language. So the techniques will be based on
the communicative language teaching and task based methods. One of the teaching
approaches that being used by the teacher is a direct method. This method was being applied
when the teacher. The direct method was the outcome of the reaction against the grammar
translation method. This method focuses on directly thinking, doing discussion and
conversation in second language (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). This is because the teacher
taught the students directly. The teaching process would be very easy and the students can
understand better as the teacher used the direct method.

THE LANGUAGE SKILLS WERE TAUGHT EFFECTIVELY

Payam Bahrampoor (2018) claimed that the language skills used in the video is speaking
skills. Speaking skills is the ability to talk at any time and in any situation. The students used
speaking skills when the teacher asked few questions to them. The teacher asked the students
to explain why did they categorise the food as healthy and unhealthy food. The students
answered the questions correctly. They even can speak fluently and participate actively in the
activity that was being done by the teacher.
THE ASSESSMENT WAS DONE EFFICIENTLY

In the video, the teacher used a formative assessment. The teacher brought a box full of
different types of food. The teacher then put two baskets beside the box then labelled them
as healthy and unhealthy food. She then showed the food to the students and asked them the
name of it. The students will categorise it to the correct basket.

WEB BASED LEARNING SUGGESTION

Web based learning Web is anywhere anytime instruction delivered over the Internet or a
corporate to browser-equipped learners. In this video, the teacher can create an online quiz
to make the learning process becomes interesting. This is because nowadays generations
they are really familiar with technologies. They can answer the quiz in online and the students
would feel more interested to learn. The teacher can also create a link in the padlet so that the
students can send their homework in the padlet which is much easier than before.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, all the techniques that I’ve mentioned were actually bring benefits to the
students. Speed of learning is not the only important factor, however. Retention, recall, and
transfer are also critical it. Students need to be able to accurately remember the information
they learn, recall it at a later time, and utilize it effectively in a wide variety of situations. The
techniques used must be suitable to be used during the teaching process for the students.
REFERENCES

Baron, R. A. and Byrne, D. (1987). Social Psychology: Understanding Human Interaction.

Sth ed. Newton, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Abela, J. C. (2009). Adult learning theories and medical education: a review.

Essays, UK. (November 2018). Methods And Approaches Of English Language Teaching
English Language Essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-
language/methods-and-approaches-of-english-language-teaching-english-language-
essay.php?vref=1

Mayer, R. E. (1981). The Promise of Cognitive Pv) etiology. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.

Fosnot, C. T. (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspective, and practice, New York:

Teachers College Press.

Steffe, L. P., & Gale, J. (Eds.) (1995). Constructivism in education. Hillsdale, NJ: Earlbaum.