Didáctica vs. Metodología

What´s the difference between ¨didáctica¨and ¨metodología¨?

I hope I have it clear in my mind. Methodology is a more general approach, for example, communicative, suggestopedia, or physical response methodology. It is how you are going to teach, your style, but the exact contents or didactic need to be adapted to the specific students and context of your classroom. In some cases, some methodologies are more appropriate for certain types of students.

In this class we talked about alot of different didactic approaches to teaching languages. What does that mean? It means that depending on the context of who you are teaching and why, the way you teach needs to change. In other words, you are not going to teach English the same way to someone who is a native English speaker as you would to someone who is learning English as a second language or a foreign language. Also, you are not going to teach english the same way to young learners, children ages 3 to 10, as you would to adults.

Before this class I had never heard of "English for Seniors". It is an area that I find interesting because it is a didactic approach I don't know much about. It makes sense though, there are special things you need to take in to consideration when teaching seniors, especially listening activities and their ability to hear, but also their motivations for learning. As a teacher of seniors, you would need to make sure that all the listenings you incorporate in your class are clear, they speak slowly, and you can adjust the volume. Talking about this topic made me think of a video I saw on Facebook, about a senior learning english. I have inserted it here below: