The History of Language Teaching :The History of Language Teaching Pre-1880 Grammar Translation The Direct Method Audiolingualism And a few others on the way…


Language Teaching Pre-1880 :Language Teaching Pre-1880 Set of translated dialogues – no grading or selection Bilingual grammar section, dictionary and script explanation


Grammar - Translation :Grammar - Translation Original Aim – to make language teaching systematic and therefore to make language learning easier Consisted of – rules based on word classes vocabulary list exemplificatory sentences translation exercises


Grammar - Translation :Grammar - Translation Rise of middle class education meant education no longer only in the hands of the upper classes and the public schools Reaction by public schools – assertion of the “superior intellectual rigour” of studying the classics Modern languages came to be seen as soft option – “travel courier learning”


Grammar - Translation :Grammar - Translation Teachers and textbooks started to up the level of difficulty to “compete” with the classics : Practical use no longer important Emphasis on accuracy Obsession with thoroughness –awls and anvils


Principles of the Grammar Translation Method :Principles of the Grammar Translation Method Instruction is given in the student’s L1 Focus on grammatical categories (word classes – nouns, adjectives etc) Examples are sentence based or less Exercises based on translation L2 – L1 and L1-L2 Based on the written language – use of literary passages No oral practice T doesn’t need to speak the L2 and students don’t usually learn to do so


Direct Method :Direct Method Late 19th century : Growing interest in phonetics Growing geographical mobility and migration Reform movement – Berlitz, Gouin, Saveur: critical of GT approach. Maximilian Berlitz


Direct Method :Direct Method Different varieties but 3 basic principles : the primacy of speech over writing centrality of the connected text to the language learning process The necessity of an oral methodology


Principles of the Direct Method :Principles of the Direct Method No use of L1 permitted- T usually native speaker. Input through demonstration and monologues by the T – meaning made clear through actions, objects, pictures. Later in the course texts used. Grammar rules not given , at least till late in the course Q-A exercises


Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method :Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method “From the first lesson the student hears only the language he is studying …” “In all translation methods, most of the time is taken up by explanations in the student’s mother tongue while but few words are spoken in the language to be learned…… (this) is contrary to common sense.”


Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method :Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method “He who is studying a foreign language by means of translation neither gets hold of its spirit nor becomes accustomed to think in it. On the contrary he has a tendency to base all he has to say upon what he would say in his mother tongue and he cannot prevent his vernacular from invading the foreign idiom, thereby rendering the latter unintelligible or, at least, incorrect.”


Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method :Extract From : Fundamental Principles of the Berlitz Method “A knowledge of a foreign tongue, acquired by means of translation, is necessarily defective … for there is by no means for every word of the one language the exact equivalent in the other.”


The Reading Method – Interwar Period :The Reading Method – Interwar Period Developed in Bengal by Michael West – felt that his students did not need spoken English Introduced vocabulary control in order to grade texts – idea of word counts.


The Oral Method and Situational Language Teaching :The Oral Method and Situational Language Teaching 1930s : Both grew out of and reacted against the Direct Method. Associated with Palmer, Hornby, Eckersley Grading and vocabulary control Demonstration and long dialogues – from the Direct Method