PARTICIPATORY APPROACH...

     Participatory approach, also known as Freirean Approach, is a teaching strategy that incorporates themes or content area that are of interest to the learners. Freire contends that unjust social circumstances originate from illiteracy and the reason for seeking education is to empower learners to take a proactive stance in liberating themselves from their burdens (Spencer 1992). The Participatory approach is under the umbrella of Content-Based Instruction (CBI) in that it uses topics for specific purposes. The themes derive from real issues that affect students’ daily lives where language learning is used as a vehicle to solve social problems. There are various activities that can be incorporated in this teaching strategy which aim to develop all language domains in the learning process. According to Auerbach ( as cited in Ross, 1995), learners are also encouraged to take ownership of their learning as well as collaborate with the teacher, including participating in small and whole group activities for learning to be meaningful. However, in the participatory approach meaning precedes form.

     The Participatory Approach is a brainchild of Brazilian language educator Paulo Freire (Check out Paulo Freire's personal interview at the end of this page) . Freire is the author of the book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed". Many researchers have also referred to this method as the Freirean Approach to language literacy education. The goal of this method is to use language learning as a tool to provide solutions to social problems that impact learners in their daily lives. According to Jurno (as cited in Spencer, 1992) Freire contends that unjust social problems originate from illiteracy and the solution lies in helping learners empower themselves from the circumstances they are in.