TEACHING METHODS

This is a summary of the different teaching methods used for second or foreign language teaching.

The Grammar-Translation Approach

Classes are taught in the students' mother tongue, with little active use of the target language. Vocabulary is taught in the form of isolated word lists. Elaborate explanations of grammar are always provided. Grammar instruction provides the rules for putting words together; instruction often focuses on the form and inflection of words. Reading of difficult texts is begun early in the course of study. Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis. Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue, and vice versa. Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.

The Direct Approach

Lessons begin with a dialogue using a modern conversational style in the target language. Material is first presented orally with actions or pictures. The mother tongue is NEVER, NEVER used. There is no translation. The preferred type of exercise is a series of questions in the target language based on the dialogue or an anecdotal narrative. Questions are answered in the target language. Grammar is taught inductively--rules are generalized from the practice and experience with the target language. Verbs are used first and systematically conjugated only much later after some oral mastery of the target language.

The Reading Approach

The priority in studying the target language is first, reading ability and second, current and/or historical knowledge of the country where the target language is spoken. Only the grammar necessary for reading comprehension and fluency is taught. Minimal attention is paid to pronunciation or gaining conversational skills in the target language. From the beginning, a great amount of reading is done in L2, both in and out of class. The vocabulary of the early reading passages and texts is strictly controlled for difficulty. Vocabulary is expanded as quickly as possible, since the acquisition of vocabulary is considered more important that grammatical skill. Translation reappears in this approach as a respectable classroom procedure related to comprehension of the written text.

The Audiolingual Method

New material is presented in the form of a dialogue. Based on the principle that language learning is habit formation, the method fosters dependence on mimicry, memorization of set phrases and over-learning. Structures are sequenced and taught one at a time. Structural patterns are taught using repetitive drills. Little or no grammatical explanations are provided; grammar is taught inductively. Skills are sequenced: Listening, speaking, reading and writing are developed in order. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learned in context. Teaching points are determined by contrastive analysis between L1 and L2. There is abundant use of language laboratories, tapes and visual aids.

The Silent Way

Caleb Gattegno, Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way. New York City: Educational Solutions, 1972.

The idea is to avoid the use of the vernacular language. To create simple linguistic situations that remain under the complete control of the teacher To pass on to the learners the responsibility for the utterances of the descriptions of the objects shown or the actions performed. To let the teacher concentrate on what the students say and how they are saying it, drawing their attention to the differences in pronunciation and the flow of words. To generate a serious game-like situation in which the rules are implicitly agreed upon by giving meaning to the gestures of the teacher and his mime.

To provide the support of perception and action to the intellectual guess of what the noises mean, thus bring in the arsenal of the usual criteria of experience already developed and automatic in one's use of the mother tongue. To provide duration of spontaneous speech upon which the teacher and the students can work to obtain a similarity of melody to the one heard, thus providing melodic integrative schemata from the start.

Functional-Notional Approach

Finocchiaro, M. & Brumfit, C. (1983). The Functional-Notional Approach. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Notions are meaning elements that may be expressed through nouns, pronouns, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, adjectives or adverbs. The use of particular notions depends on three major factors: a. the functions b. the elements in the situation, and c. the topic being discussed.

· A situation may affect variations of language such as the use of dialects, the formality or informality of the language and the mode of expression. Situation includes the following elements:

A. The persons taking part in the speech act

B. The place where the conversation occurs

C. The time the speech act is taking place

D. The topic or activity that is being discussed

· Exponents are the language utterances or statements that stem from the function, the situation and the topic.

· Code is the shared language of a community of speakers.

· Code-switching is a change or switch in code during the speech act, which many theorists believe is purposeful behavior to convey bonding, language prestige or other elements of interpersonal relations between the speakers.

Functional Categories of Language

Mary Finocchiaro (1983, p. 65-66) has placed the functional categories under five headings as noted below: personal, interpersonal, directive, referential, and imaginative.

Personal = Clarifying or arranging one’s ideas; expressing one’s thoughts or feelings: love, joy, pleasure, happiness, surprise, likes, satisfaction, dislikes, disappointment, distress, pain, anger, anguish, fear, anxiety, sorrow, frustration, annoyance at missed opportunities, moral, intellectual and social concerns; and the everyday feelings of hunger, thirst, fatigue, sleepiness, cold, or warmth.

Interpersonal = Enabling us to establish and maintain desirable social and working relationships: Enabling us to establish and maintain desirable social and working relationships:

Greetings and leave takings

Introducing people to others

Identifying oneself to others

Expressing joy at another’s success

Expressing concern for other people’s welfare

Extending and accepting invitations

Refusing invitations politely or making alternative arrangements

Making appointments for meetings

Breaking appointments politely and arranging another mutually convenient time

Apologizing

Excusing oneself and accepting excuses for not meeting commitments

Indicating agreement or disagreement

Interrupting another speaker politely

Changing an embarrassing subject

Receiving visitors and paying visits to others

Offering food or drinks and accepting or declining politely

Sharing wishes, hopes, desires, problems

Making promises and committing oneself to some action

Complimenting someone

Making excuses

Expressing and acknowledging gratitude

Directive = Attempting to influence the actions of others; accepting or refusing direction:

Making suggestions in which the speaker is included

Making requests; making suggestions

Refusing to accept a suggestion or a request but offering an alternative

Persuading someone to change his point of view

Requesting and granting permission

Asking for help and responding to a plea for help

Forbidding someone to do something; issuing a command

Giving and responding to instructions

Warning someone

Discouraging someone from pursuing a course of action

Establishing guidelines and deadlines for the completion of actions

Asking for directions or instructions

Referential = talking or reporting about things, actions, events, or people in the environment in the past or in the future; talking about language (what is termed the metalinguistic function: = talking or reporting about things, actions, events, or people in the environment in the past or in the future; talking about language (what is termed the metalinguistic function:

Identifying items or people in the classroom, the school the home, the community

Asking for a description of someone or something

Defining something or a language item or asking for a definition

Paraphrasing, summarizing, or translating (l1 to l2 or vice versa)

Explaining or asking for explanations of how something works

Comparing or contrasting things

Discussing possibilities, probabilities, or capabilities of doing something

Requesting or reporting facts about events or actions

Evaluating the results of an action or event

Imaginative = Discussions involving elements of creativity and artistic expression

Discussing a poem, a story, a piece of music, a play, a painting, a film, a TV program, etc.

Expanding ideas suggested by other or by a piece of literature or reading material

Creating rhymes, poetry, stories or plays

Recombining familiar dialogs or passages creatively

Suggesting original beginnings or endings to dialogs or stories

Solving problems or mysteries

Total Physical Response

James J. Asher, Learning Another Language Through Actions. San Jose, California: AccuPrint, 1979.

James J. Asher defines the Total Physical Response (TPR) method as one that combines information and skills through the use of the kinesthetic sensory system. This combination of skills allows the student to assimilate information and skills at a rapid rate. As a result, this success leads to a high degree of motivation. The basic tenets are:

Understanding the spoken language before developing the skills of speaking. Imperatives are the main structures to transfer or communicate information. The student is not forced to speak, but is allowed an individual readiness period and allowed to spontaneously begin to speak when the student feels comfortable and confident in understanding and producing the utterances.

TECHNIQUE

· Step I: The teacher says the commands as he himself performs the action.

· Step 2: The teacher says the command as both the teacher and the students then perform the action.

· Step 3: The teacher says the command but only students perform the action.

· Step 4: The teacher tells one student at a time to do commands.

· Step 5: The roles of teacher and student are reversed. Students give commands to teacher and to other students.

· Step 6: The teacher and student allow for command expansion or produces new sentences.

The Communicative Approach

Communicative competence is the progressive acquisition of the ability to use a language to achieve one's communicative purpose.

Communicative competence involves the negotiation of meaning between two or more persons sharing the same symbolic system.

Communicative competence applies to both spoken and written language.

Communicative competence is context specific based on the situation, the role of the participants and the appropriate choices of register and style. For example: The variation of language used by persons in different jobs or professions can be either formal or informal. The use of jargon or slang may or may not be appropriate.

Communicative competence represents a shift in focus from the grammatical to the communicative properties of the language; i.e. the functions of language and the process of discourse.

Communicative competence requires the mastery of the production and comprehension of communicative acts or speech acts that are relevant to the needs of the L2 learner.

Characteristics of the Communicative Classroom

The classroom is devoted primarily to activities that foster acquisition of L2. Learning activities involving practice and drill are assigned as homework.

The instructor does not correct speech errors directly.

Students are allowed to respond in the target language, their native language, or a mixture of the two.

The focus of all learning and speaking activities is on the interchange of a message that the acquirer understands and wishes to transmit, i.e. meaningful communication.

The students receive comprehensible input in a low-anxiety environment and are personally involved in class activities.

Comprehensible input has the following major components:

a context

gestures and other body language cues

a message to be comprehended

a knowledge of the meaning of key lexical items in the utterance

Stages of language acquisition in the communicative approach

Comprehension or pre-production

Total physical response

Answer with names--objects, students, pictures

Early speech production

Yes-no questions

Either-or questions

Single/two-word answers

Open-ended questions

Open dialogues

Interviews

Speech emerges

Games and recreational activities

Content activities

Humanistic-affective activities

Information-problem-solving activities

The Natural Approach: Theoretical Base

The Natural Approach and the Communicative Approach share a common theoretical and philosophical base. The Natural Approach to L2 teaching is based on the following hypotheses:

The acquisition-learning distinction hypothesis

The natural order of acquisition hypothesis

The monitor hypothesis

The input hypothesis

The affective hypothesis

The filter hypothesis

The aptitude hypothesis

The first language hypothesis

The textuality hypothesis

The expectancy hypothesis

Source: Krashen, S.D. , & Terrell, T.D. (1983). The Natural Approach. Hayward, CA: The Alemany Press.