Effective English Language Teaching Methods and Principles

Posted on Feb 6, 2026 in Primary Education

Effective Classroom Tools: Logs and Journals

Logs and journals are essential tools in the classroom. A journal is a notebook in which students record their personal reflections, questions they are wondering about, ideas, words or expressions they want to remember, or feelings they have about experiences in class. Logs are usually more objective; for example, they include observations on learning activities, lists of books read or films watched, notes on learning strategies, and so on.

Core Methods for Language Acquisition

The Language Experience method is one of the most effective for teaching reading and for second language acquisition in general. Students experience something together and then have the opportunity to discuss it in detail. Role play and simulation are natural extensions of the traditional methods of reading or memorizing dialogues, or of writing skits consisting of short conversations. Structural exercises are exercises that focus the attention of the students on the form or structure of the language. Using surveys, students collect information from a sample of people or other students to determine the frequency of particular responses.

Methodology Fundamentals in English Language Teaching

With regard to teaching methods in our Royal Decree, we find clear resolutions as now specified:

  • Put the student in contact with communicative, meaningful, and comprehensible data.
  • Linguistic and non-linguistic experiences are present simultaneously.
  • Activities or tasks that must be carried out make up the main point of didactic planning.
  • The activities and tasks will be generated from topics or points of interest.
  • The four skills work integrally.
  • The oral and receptive skills are very important in the early days.
  • It is important to develop communication strategies that compensate for competency levels.

General Methodological Principles in Didactics

Didactics is indeed able to establish a series of general methodological principles that nowadays are fundamentally derived from Krashen and T. Terrell’s Natural Approach and the recent communicative and interactive approaches.

Methodology Foundations from the Natural Approach

  1. Using Krashen’s theory, we estimate that the natural situation is the only one that promotes language acquisition.
  2. Neither age nor situation is important in the learning process. The truly crucial factor is the activities or tasks that are carried out with the language.
  3. Influenced by Krashen, we admit that it is important to encourage the language student’s self-confidence (addressing emotional filters and/or anxiety).

Methodology Foundations from the Communicative Approach

  1. A natural acquisition situation is not enough to learn a language. Linguistic immersion should be the first step for later reflection, which secures the sensorially acquired data in the memory.
  2. The dichotomy between the formal situation (where only learning is possible) and the informal situation (where acquisition is possible) is not assumable in the school setting.
  3. The union between impregnation processes (Krashen) and reflection processes is necessary in foreign language learning. Nowadays, language teaching-learning is referred to as a “continuum” of formal knowledge and instrumental knowledge of that language.
  4. The teaching-learning process must not be centered around the content, but rather the student should be the focus.
  5. The didactic act is a communicative act in itself.