ESL Term:

Approach

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approach: A set of principles about teaching including views on method, syllabus, and a philosophy of language and learning. Approaches have theoretical backing with practical applications.

The communicative approach has affected language teaching greatly, changing the focus away from structure to meaning and accuracy to fluency. In this approach, a functional syllabus replaces a structural syllabus.

In recent years, some authors have combined an emphasis on lexis with the communicative approach to suggest a lexical approach to language learning and teaching.