Major language trends in twentieth-century language teaching
A brief history of language teaching
The nature of approaches and methods
in language teaching
This chapter, in briefly reviewing the history of language teaching methods, provides a background for discussion of contemporary methods and suggests the issues we will refer to in analyzing these methods.
In this chapter we will clarify the relationship between approach and method and present a model for the description, analysis, and comparison of methods.
Overview of Curriculum, Approaches, and Methods, and Theoretical Approaches to Curriculum
The different methods are
Approaches and methods in teacher preparation
programs
Despite the changing status of approaches and methods in language teaching, the study of past and present teaching methods continues to form a significant component of teacher preparation programs.
The methods era
The different teaching approaches and methods that have emerged in the last 60 or so years and assumptions about how a second language is learned and preferred teaching techniques, have in common the belief that if language learning is to be improved, it will come about through changes and improvements in teaching methodology
The Direct Method
The Direct Method can be regarded as the first language teaching method to have caught the attention of teachers and language teaching specialists, and it offered a methodology that appeared to move language teaching into a new era. It marked the beginning of the “methods era.”
The Reform Movement
The International Phonetic Association was founded in 1886, and its International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was designed to enable the sounds of any language to be accurately transcribed. One of the earliest goals of the association was to improve the teaching of modern languages.
Language teaching innovations in the nineteenth
century
Increased opportunities for communication among Europeans created a demand for oral proficiency in foreign languages. Educators recognized the need for speaking proficiency rather than reading comprehension, grammar, or literary appreciation as the goal for foreign language
programs.
The Grammar-Translation Method
It is used in
situations where understanding literary texts is the primary focus of foreign language study and there is little need for a speaking knowledge of the
language.
Approach and method
Approach
It refers to
Theories about the nature of language and language learning that serve as the source of practices and
principles in language teaching.
We will examine the linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of approach in turn.
Theory of language
Structural, functional, or interactional models of language provide the axioms and theoretical framework that may motivate a particular teaching method, such as Audiolingualism.
Theory of language learning
At the level of approach, we are hence concerned with theoretical principles. With respect to language theory, we are concerned with a model of language competence and an account of the basic features of linguistic organization and language use.
Design
In the remainder of this chapter, we will elaborate on the relationship between approach, design, and procedure, using this framework to compare particular methods and approaches in language teaching.
In order for an approach to lead to a method, it is necessary to develop a
design for an instructional system.
Objectives
They determine what a method sets out to achieve.
Content choice and organization: The syllabus
It refers to the form in
which linguistic content is specified in a course or method.
Types of learning and teaching activities
Because of the different assumptions they make about learning processes, syllabuses, and learning activities, methods also attribute different roles and functions to learners, teachers, and instructional materials within the instructional process.
Learner roles
The design of an instructional system will be considerably influenced by
how learners are regarded. A method reflects explicit or implicit responses to questions concerning the learners’ contribution to the learning
process.
Teacher roles
. Teacher roles are similarly related ultimately both to
assumptions about language and language learning at the level of approach.
The role of instructional materials
The instructional materials in their turn further specify subjectmatter content, even where no syllabus exists, and define or suggest the intensity of coverage for syllabus items, allocating the amount of time, attention, and detail particular syllabus items or tasks require.
Procedure
This encompasses the actual momentto-moment techniques, practices, and behaviors that operate in teaching
a language according to a particular method.