Grammar teachers have long been aware of recurring interference factors with pronouns and reference, such as the Japanese tendency to confuse he and she, the Spanish tendency to confuse his and your, and so on, and there is not much discourse analysts can say to ease those overgreen problems. What can be (and often is not) directly taught about a system such as that of English is the different ways of referring to the discourse itself by use of items such as it, this, and that, which do not seem to translate in a one-to-one way to other languages, even where these are closely cognate (cf. German, French, Spanish).

Teachers and teachers in training need to be able to use approaches and methods flexibly and creatively based on their own judgment and experience. In this process, they should be encouraged to transform and adapt the methods they use to make their own. Training in the techniques and procedures of a specific method is probably essential for novice teachers entering teaching, because it provides them with the confidence they will need to face learners and it provides techniques and strategies for presenting lessons. In the early stages, teaching

is largely a matter of applying procedures and techniques developed by others.