Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Kovács, Éva: The History of Teaching Vocabulary

- 138 4. Systonatic contextualization Systematic contextualization is largely done by the teacher's giving examples.... The learner is by this means learning about the language as a series of systems: he is not beginning to learn 'linguistic habits' or 'verbal behaviour' (Corder 1960: 47). That is why CoFder regards this type of contextualization to be the lowest level of teaching. Corder is aware of the fact that there is a conflict between verbal behaviour on the one side and good linguistic habits on the other and is convinced that this conflict can be solved by contextualization by the means of television. The contexts, however, should be graded from the simpler to more difficult situations. According to Corder linguistically speaking, there is little or no control over the language a child receives while learning his mother tongue, on the'other hand there definitely is control and gradation in the contexts in which tie learns his verbal behaviour. A child learns correct verbal behaviour because the correct verbal responses are socially reinforced and the incorrect socially puoished. Everybody lie meets is his teacher (Corder I960: 57). Thus as the pupil will learn the language as a process of communication in the case of the contextual method he will lie able to cope with the linguistic difficulties as well. Tv offers us the opportunity of presenting all language material as fully contextual ized verbal behaviour and at the same time of controlling these contexts in a way that cannot occur when a learner goes to a foreign country, and of presenting them in a more strictly controlled way than that in which the child learns his mother tongue (Corder 1960: 60). No doubt that Corder's contextual method is just the antipode of the linguistic approach as Corder regards language as a verbal behaviour. A great advantage of his method is that it has a strong motivating effect on the learner because lie feels that he can use effectively and in real situations what lie lias learned. Michael West's basic concepts expounded in Learning English as Behaviour are very similar to those of Corder. West regards language as a form of behaviour: it is a reaction of the organism as a whole to a social environment. Words are only part of that reaction, which includes also posture, facial expression, gesture, and in the linguistic part