Abstract:
Worldwide, the field of language teaching has in the last decade been going through a
revolution with the quest to come up with methodological approaches that can be
regarded as efficient to effectively facilitate the language instructional process. This
has borne an on-going debate regarding which is the most effective method and in
which direction should language educators go with regard to enhancing the language
learning process. From this perspective, an examination of language teaching
methods points at a period in the world of language teaching methodology where
there was a move away from the concept of “methods” deemed to restrict the teacher
to a particular set of instructional practices. Born from this awakening, the concept of
“eclecticism” is taking root. Eclecticism advocates focus on language teaching
procedures rather than language teaching methods. Among the approaches that are
taking root in language instruction is the “integration approach” to language
teaching. This approach has now taken deep root, a philosophy that informs
innovative classroom practice of the language teacher. Given this orientation, our
paper presents a conceptualization and an analysis of the integration approach to
teaching language. The paper draws its thread of thought from literature on
methodology and authors combined experience of ELT of 26 years. The aim of this
paper is to provide direction toward successful and informed implementation of the
integration approach at all levels of learning as provided for in the education system
in Kenya. We offer a description of various forms of integration levels which we
believe are likely to enlighten teachers of English in handling problems arising
during the implementation process. We are certain that the perspectives raised here
will provide a sound background to the understanding of language teaching practice
in Kenya borne from the communicative approach, communicative language teaching
and notional-functional approach syllabi and philosophies, and the advocacy for
post-method approaches in language teaching which all form the basis for the
integration approach
