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Grammar Translation
Grammar was taught as a set of rules. Practice was done through written exercises; the medium of instruction was the mother tongue meaning that the students didn’t have the opportunity to get immersed in the target language. Vocabulary was learned via translated lists. Speaking and listening were seen as less important, conversation classes were an extracurricular activity. -
1890- Now: Direct method
This practice started in the USA. Speaking and listening were the most important skills. Students learned through listening and repetition. Grammar rules were avoided and replaced by phrases. Vocabulary was learned as parts of the phrases being taught or via lists grouped under types of situations. -
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1960-1970 (USA) Audio-lingual method
A version of the direct method. This suggested that language was a set of structures. Grammar rules were an illusion, so it was more important to focus on these structures. Vocabulary was seen as an adjunct to the structures. Speaking and listening were the most important skills. This method was based on behaviorists psychology. Thinking was discouraged and automaticity of response was favored -
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1960-1980 (UK) Structural-situational method (AKA PPP)
This was a pragmatic version of the audio-lingualism method. The language presentation and practice were given a social context to revolve in. Speaking and listening were the most important skills for the students to develop. -
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1970-1980 Humanistic approaches
This movement was based on the assumption that language classes were places of fear for language learners. The philosophy of the humanistic approaches was valuable and since then, it has become an essential percept of language teaching that students assimilate things best when they’re talking about themselves. -
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1970-1990 Functional syllabuses – Communicative language teaching 1
The first tranche of the communicative revolution was based on the idea of grouping bits of language according to communicative functions like apologizing, requesting and advising. No obvious method was suggested by defining language in this way. -
1975 Communicative methodology – communicative language teaching 2
The second tranche of the communicative revolution really took off by the early 80’s. The key principle was the separation of classroom work into accuracy work and fluency work. Accuracy work was for concentrating on learning new bits of language. Fluency work allowed the students to speak freely. In the US in the late 70’s, an influential version of second language learning theory which postulated that learners acquire language as children acquire their first language. -
1980 – Test-Teach-Test
Inventive variation of traditional PPP. Particularly appropriate to teaching functional exponents but also adaptable to grammar points and lexis. Basically consists of testing the students before introducing a topic by giving them a task. The teacher then identifies the issues and focuses more on them when teaching the subject. After teaching, the teacher tests the students again to look at the improvement. -
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1985 – 2003 – Negotiated syllabus
Mostly relevant to executive and business English students where needs are specific and focused. Based on the principle that we first find out what the students want and test them to find what they need. -
1990 – Lexical views of language
Academic linguists noticed that the language was full of set phrases that are part of a memorized store of pre-fabricated “Chunks” which, once we learnt, each native speaker has automatically at their disposal. When we speak we appear to use these chunks like single vocabulary units. -
1995 – Noticing
This is based on the idea that students learn unconsciously, so what the teacher does in the classroom is not teaching them actively throughout repetition but raising awareness about the target language, and so little by little students enter a process of successive approximation. -
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1995 – Output feedback
Originating mainly in the Business English Field. Based on the idea of an immersive bath of communication from which useful language focus then arises. If we simply set out students off in authentic communicative activities in the classroom, we can use the ensuing language output as data for feedback. This feedback is one of the forms of language focus and can take many forms. -
1999 – Grammaticisation
There was a growth of interest in classroom tasks which help the student to see grammar in its global and truly communicative context. -
2002 – The modern integrated language teacher.
We used translation when it’s quick and efficient to get across meaning. We teach grammar but more as a reference point. We use practice exercises to raise student’s awareness of common lexical expressions. We use a task based approach, we use output feedback, test-teach-test, noticing and grammaticisation.