Principles for a Deep Approach to Foreign Language Education

A lecture titled Principles for a Deep Approach to Foreign Language Education­ was held at the Octagon Conference Hall in the south campus of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies at 3 p.m. on October 30th, 2014. This lecture was organized by the School of English and Education and attended by a host of students and teachers from this school. As the moderator of the lecture, Mr. Dong Jinwei, the dean of this school, briefly introduced Professor Tochon and then extended a warm welcome to him.

The lecture started with Professor Tochon’s analysis of the merits and demerits of the current language teaching methods. He mentioned that in the language teaching process, the translation- and grammar-oriented methods were widely used, playing an important role for both language teaching instructors and language learners. Besides, he talked about other current languages methods, such as controlled teaching for controlled learning and task-directed teaching. Then he pointed out the weaknesses of these methods, including lack of opportunities for self-directed learning and rare use of new technologies. Among all these disadvantages, the biggest problem, he thought, was that teachers failed in helping students achieve language proficiency.

Afterwards, he briefed the participants on the two concepts of product-oriented curricula and process-oriented curricula, which were two commonly-seen types of curricula. As for product-oriented curricula, learning was normalized and curricula became normative. Therefore, content diversity largely disappeared. About process-oriented curricula, there could be a broad variety of products for one single process. Hence, teaching while focusing on process didn’t pre-format products.

Here came the climax of the lecture. Professor Tochon put forward a deep approach to foreign language education. He thought the deep approach was not prescriptive because the teacher could personalize instructional processes in reference to a changing context. Additionally, he said the deep approach emphasized the relevance and meaningfulness of the contents and task chosen and developed by the students. Therefore, it was clearly shown that students should be the builders of curricula, replacing the teacher’s role as the curriculum builder. Last but not least, Professor Tochon put humanism at the core of the deep approach. He added that students would be motivated to express their preferred way of learning. Professor Tochon also proposed his own IAPI model, namely interpreting, analyzing, presenting and interacting.

Approaching the end of the lecture, teachers from this faculty raised two questions concerning the application of the deep approach to the teaching practice and Professor Tochon illustrated specific examples to get his ideas across. Finally all the participants clapped Professor Tochon’s lecture enthusiastically.

This lecture was highly commended due to the vivid and real-life instances adopted by Professor Tochon and his excellent delivery.

A brief introduction to Professor Tochon is listed. Doctor. Francois Victor Tochon is a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wasconsin-Madison where he headed World Language Education for 6 years. He worked on intercultural issues related to bilingualism in various countries and international languages policies, looking for new ways to organize language teaching and learning. In 2009-2011, he received an award from the U.S. Department of Education to create, research and evaluate a “Deep Approach” to foreign language curricula that would respect a pluralistic and federative view of language policies.