By Carol Al-Majali
Unfortunately, didactic teaching and traditional methods are still practiced in most of our schools during English classes.
Classrooms are teacher-centric and they still take the responsibility of knowledge dispensers, not facilitators.
Teachers ought to meet the needs of students in a meaningful way; this can be achieved by developing the teacher’s ability to ask meaningful questions in their classrooms, it is a simple, effective way to influence learning outcomes.
Questions serve as a beneficial instructional strategy, allowing teachers to facilitate student learning opportunities through engagement, and by reinforcing understanding, promoting higher levels of thinking, and providing feedback. Students should reach the point where they can detect, notice patterns and work out a ‘rule’ for themselves before they practise the language.
Creating meaningful learning opportunities is also important for teachers in order to skillfully sequence questions and help students achieve at high levels of comprehension and thinking.
Moreover, students who actively respond during instruction allow their teacher to assess their ability to recall information and develop critical thinking skills.
This is literally what the inductive approach calls for. And yes it does play a huge role in enhancing the students’ communicative competence.
But, to what extent does this approach exist at our schools in Jordan?
Are our English teachers well trained to apply the inductive instructions and practices nowadays?
