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HUMANISTIC LANGUAGE TEACHING by Hugo Armando Vanegas.(El Salvador) MA Thesis Goldsmiths University of London, UK

In the last 100 years of English Language Teaching, Linguists and teachers have been striving to find the "Perfect Method" to teach Languages. Traditional Methods such as the Grammar-Translation Method, the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingua Method, the Cognitive Code Method, Situation Language Learning method and our current Communicative Approach share one thing in common: They all concentrate exclusively on developing the learners cognitive side ignoring, among other things, that learners are human beings who in addition to thinking have feelings and expectations and are not passive "Automatons" who we could train linguistically to respond when prompted.

This current state of education which Carl Rogers, an American Psychologist, called "Learning for the neck up" not only ignores the Learners Personality, creativity and autonomy but also promotes feelings of insecurity, anxiety and stress which are the main inhibitors of a successful second language acquisition process.

To counteract this cognitive and impersonal Traditional view of Language Teaching, some Humanistic Approaches emerged in the mid seventies mainly in the United States; these approaches were: Counseling Learning, The Silent Way, Total Physical Response, The Natural Approach and Suggestopedia in Bulgaria. These Humanistic Approaches concentrated mainly on developing a friendly atmosphere at the centre where he or she would feel relaxed, safe and motivated, this way, it was claimed, internal processes of the mind would be triggered accelerating learning more rapidly and effectively, in fact, in a Suggestopedia book, Lozanov, its creator, claimed that students learned more than 1000 Language items daily!

Unfortunately, these Humanistic Approaches ignored, among other things, Grammatical Competence and when they were tested, assessed and evaluated they failed to comply with the concept of ´Validity´ and ´Reliability´. This way it became a vicious circle, in the one hand the Traditional cognitive Paradigm concentrating exclusively on teaching techniques ignoring the learner, and on the other, Humanistic Approaches concentrating mainly on making the learner feel coMfortable and looked after, but ignoring grammatical competence, thus, falling these two paradigms into a vicious circle in which teachers and learners became even more confused than before!

Latest educational research in England and the United States aims at the learners "Autonomy" and "Proficiency" and these can only be achieved through a more Humanistic Methodology in which the learner becomes more responsible, creative and self-directed; this Self-directed Learner will inevitable bring about radical changes to the teachers who have to change their "chips" of dominant roles and humbly become "Facilitators", whose main objective is to facilitate the students own learning; this is achieved through the direct and explicit training in "Language Learning Strategies". These strategies are skills, tools, tricks of the trade that we, teachers, must pass onto the students so they can manipulate our teaching materials more efficiently and consequently assimilate learning more effectively.

These strategies are of three types: Cognitive, Metacognitive and Social-affective; and should be taught in a "whole person relationship" with the learner in which the teacher through a more open, friendlier and supportive approach will help the learner grow and reach his or her full potential which will predispose him or her for a better language learning process.

Only if language teachers team up and get closer to the students with genuine enthusiasm and take into account their personalities and individual needs when designing teaching materials and by being aware of the learning process itself, and in addition to fostering a friendly and professional atmosphere at the learning centre where he or she will feel motivated, confident and fulfilled may we attempt to empower the learner to become a more autonomous and successful member of our changing society in the new millenium.

In order to appreciate more fully the effectiveness of this proposal: Humanistic Task-based Language Learning, it is in my view necessary to introduce the reader to a brief synopsis of the history of English Language Teaching methods and their evolution up to these day...

CONTENTS: History of English Language Teaching Methods, Personalized Language Learning, Cognitive learner styles, Learners personalities, The Affective Filter, The Johari Window, Learners Strategies, Memory Processes, the Good Language Learner, The Good Language Teacher.