METHODS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Grammar Translation Method (beginning of the nineteenth century)

¨  Focuses on written communication

¨  Translation into target langauge through the application of rules of grammar.

¨  GTM focuses on translating grammatical forms, memorizing vocabulary, learning rules.

GTM

¨  The first concern with language teaching method had to do with the teaching of Latin and Greek grammars. The methods used at that time were mostly designed to enable people to speak, read and write Latin

¨  The fundamental purpose people learned a foreign language was to be able to read literature that was written in the foreign language so that the students were provided with exercises to read and write in the foreign language

Asumption about language and Language Learning (GTM)

¨  Through the GTM language is believed to consist of written words and of words which exist in isolation; they are individual words which can be translated one by one into their foreign equivalents and then assessed according to grammatical rules into sentences in the foreign language.  

¨  In language teaching what should be taught is not the language itself but the faculty of logical thought and provided valuable mental discipline. This is often criticized because IQ of average school children is not high enough to cope with this method. Through this method teaching the target language relies very much on cognitive ability.

¨  The medium of instruction is the mother tongue, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of particular grammatical structure

¨  Learning a foreign language needs feeling secure and this

¨  condition may take place whenever language learners know

¨  how to say in the .ta4get language.

The principles of the GTM

¨  Grammar rules are presented and studied explicitly. Grammar is taught deductively and then practiced through translation exercises.

¨  The primary skills to be developed are reading and writing.

¨  Hardly any attention is paid to speaking and listening skills.

¨  Teacher correction is the only way to make students produce the right forms of the foreign language

¨  The goal of foreign language learning is the ability to understand the texts written in the foreign language

¨  Mastering the grammar of the foreign language is essential in order for students to understand the written target language

¨  Vocabulary is learnt from bilingual word lists

¨  The mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction.

¨  A paramount use of translation exercises is given.

Formula: Subject+Predicate+Object

¨  I Love her ( saya mencintai dia)

¨  You watch football every day (......)

¨  We Study English. (......)

Direct Method (Beginning of the twentieth century)

¨  GTM ignoring authentic spoken communication and social context of the langauge becomes the reason of appearing this method

¨  It emphasizes on the mastery of the target language for communication

¨  Grammar and vocabulary is taught orally

¨  Concrete meanings are made  by presenting physical objects and abstract ones through association of ideas, not through translation or Concrete vocabulary was taught through demontration, objects and picture

¨  Langauge learners learn the target language in the class most of the time

¨  the target language was taught through inductive grammar by using texts written in the target language. With the coming of the inductive teaching of grammar, the Grammar Translation Method became an end.

¨  The way of teaching was  improved by adding physical activity in presenting language materials. One of the pioneers of this movement was Gouin of France. He applied principles of modern psychology to the learning of languages; he implemented the principles of the association of ideas, visualization, learning through senses, centers of interest, play and activity in familiar everyday situations

Assumption about language Learning (DM)

¨  Meanings are made clear by presenting physical objects, such as pictures, gestures and pantomimes.

¨  Self-correction is more emphasized than teacher correction. This will make the students think in the target language, not do parroting. Self-correction can also done by repeating what they said in a questioning voice to signal to the students that there is something wrong.

¨  Vocabulary is learned more effectively if they use it in full sentences rather than memorize it. The teacher can repeat new words by asking them to the students several times in different contexts and eliciting the situations in order for the students to use the words

¨  Teaching another language means taking a role as a partner of the students in communications. The interaction between the - teacher and the students are two-way interaction

¨  Students should learn to think in the target language as soon as possible. The teacher avoids teaching individual words and full sentences will encourage the students to think in the target language. Vocabulary is acquired more easily and naturally if the students use it in full sentences, rather than memorizing word lists

Principles of Direct Method

¨  Grammar is taught  by situation and through inductive process

¨  The syllabus is based on situation and related to everyday vocabulary and structure

¨  Grammar and vocabulary is taught orally

¨  Concrete meanings are made clear by presenting physical object and abstract one through association of ideas, not tthrough translation

¨  Repetition of new materials is encouraged to make langauge learners acquire the language naturally.

¨  Listeining and imitating sounds are drilled so that language learners become automatic in producing the sound

¨  Language learners learn the target language in the class most of the time

¨  Sounds of the language are essential and presented at the beginning of the course

¨  Reading follows listening and speaking, and the reading texts are based on the materials of the two skills

¨  Many new items are presented in the same lesson in order to make the language natural

Eclectic method (In germany)

¨  Combination between Direct method and Grammar Translation Method

Audiolingual Method (the second half of the twentieth century-new era)

¨  Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbol used for oral communication

¨  Writing and printing are graphic representations of the spoken language

¨  Langauge can be broken down into three major component parts:  sound system, structure, vocabulary.

¨  Listening and speaking come first, and reding and writing come later.

¨  Every speaker uses a language in a slightly different manner. As long as they can communicate in the targert langauge.

¨  Language learning is a process of habbit formation; Drill, repetition drill, substitution drill, transformationla drill,

¨  New material is presented in dialog form.

¨  etc.

ADM method sees that language :

¨  Language is the everyday spoken utterance of the average person at normal speed. It seems that language is what people speak not what people write.

¨  Listening and speaking come first, and reading and writing come later. This assumption seems to be inspired by the process of a child who learns his/her mother tongue. A child always begins with hearing what Ms/her parents speak and he/the tries to speak afterwards

Asumption about Langauge Learning (ADM)

¨  Learning is the process of change in mental and physical behavior induced in living organism. This assumption implies that language learning is a process of acquiring another set of speech habit

¨  Language learners will be more eager when they like what they do. This assumption emphasizes on the role of motivation in learning a foreign language

¨  Language learning is a process of habit formation. The more often something is repeated, the stronger the habit and the greater the learning. The ALM believes that learning a foreign language is the same as the acquisition of the native language (Larsen-Freeman, 2000: 43).

TYPES OF PATTERN DRILLS (ALM)

¨  Repetition Drill

T: I study In the morning

S: I Studi in the morning

¨  Substitution Drill

T: John is cold

T: hungry

S: John is hungry

¨  Transformation drill

T: The book is new

S: Is the book new?

SILENT WAY

¨  The name of the method often makes people curious; they wonder how people can learn a foreign language in a “silence”.

¨  In this method the role of language teachers is relatively less silent so that language learners are encouraged to be more active in producing as much language as possible. A language teacher should encourage language learners to take a role in learning activities. The time of learning teaching interaction should be given to language learners, not to the teacher

The teacher functions as a guide, an organizer. a resource, and evaluator

¨  In the role of guide, language teacher guides learners to learn the language units under considerations; hence, the teacher offers the learning materials to the learners and helps them to acquire the target language

¨  In the role of organizer, language teacher organizes classroom activities; the teacher predicts what will happen in the class so that he! she can arrange activities which promote the learning processes the learners need

¨  In the role of resource, the teacher functions as a source of information about the subject; he/she is the one in the classroom whom the learners consult whenever they cannot solve their problems among themselves

¨  In the role of evaluator, language teacher judges whether the learners’ contributions to the learning process are valid, relevant and correct. In error correction, the evaluator judges whether the learners will be able to figure out and produce the forms expected or not and how he/she will provide them with necessary help.

¨  The result of the judgement will serve as feedback for the teacher as a guide, resource, and organizer.

COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING

¨  Community Language Learning (CLL) is the name of a method introduced and developed by Charles A. Curran and his associates. Curran was a specialist in counseling and a professor of psychology at Loyola University in Chicago. It is no doubt that this method has been inspired by the application of psychological counseling techniques to learning, which is called Counseling-Learning. Community Language Learning represents the use of Counseling- Learning theory to teach foreign languages.

¨  If the term “counseling” is traced back, it refers to the idea that there is a relationship between a counselor and a client(s). The counselor gives advice, assistance and support to his/her clients, who have a problem(s)

¨  ln Community Language learning this kind of relationship is considered basic to learning a foreign language. The teacher functions as the counselor and the learners as his/her clients

¨  The concept of “community” has been used in this method because when such relationship mentioned above is applied specifically to groups with the task of learning a second language

¨  Language learners and their language teacher build an intense atmosphere of warmth.

¨  This kind of security and support from one another in the group is really typical in this method and almost the exact opposite of the atmosphere in the schooling setting

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

¨  TPR is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological program for acquiring any language. Based on the developmental psychology, the proponents of TPR claim that memory is increased if it is stimulated through association with motor activity and the process of learning a foreign language is a parallel process to learning the first language (Brown, 1987: 163).

¨  Children do a lot of listening before they learn to speak and they do a lot of physical activities in learning their first language, such as reaching, moving and grabbing. In having children learn the first language commands from the adult dominate the communication and children respond physically before they begin to produce verbal responses (Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 87).

¨  Based on their first language acquisition, TPR emphasizes on comprehension and delays the production of language. This process is the one by which children acquire their first language.

¨  Many people believe that TPR is only appropriate for children since the method relies on imperatives. However, Ashers (1988: 3- 1) believe that the method can be used to teach any foreign language not only to children but also adults.

¨  A research on language teaching through TPR conducted by Aslers and Brice (1982) provided data that when adults learn a second language under the same conditions as children, adults outperform children.

¨  The meaning of words can be understood by making associations between the utterances they hear and the actions they are observing. The meanings of words they may guess will be internalized by performing the actions in accordance with the commands

Prosedure of TPR The following introductory techniques of TPR are taken from Gracia (1996):

¨  The teacher utters and models the commands for the students. The students perform the commands by listening to the teacher and by doing what he/she does.

¨  The teacher creates situations in which a student has to choose between two items. The student already knows one item well, therefore, by the process of elimination, the other item is immediately recognized

¨  With the introduction of a new word, the student has to choose from three items of which only one is known. If the person guesses the wrong one, another try is needed. If the guess is correct, the reward is a word of praise from the teacher.

¨  The teacher introduces a new item by making very obvious to the student what to perform, either through gestures or other additional cues

¨  The teacher introduces new materials by performing the commands on a cassette. The instructor records his own voice and then follows each direction as it is uttered, but sometimes makes an incorrect response which is corrected by the voice on tape.

Listening and comprehension can also be practiced by giving scenarios to the students. The scenarios below are taken from Garcia (1996: V-3):

¨  1. Go to the table. Touch the table. Sit on the table. Point to the table with yout hands. Squat in front of the table. Turn around. Get up. Return to your seat.

¨  2. Go to the table. Pick up the green book. Read the book. Scratch your stomach with the green book. Put the book in the box of fruit Put your head in the box of fruit. Pick up the box of fruit Put your head in the box of fruit Take your head out of the box of fruit

¨  3. Go to the chalkboard. Salute the flag. Jump twice. Touch the chalkboard with your nose. Scratch your right foot.

¨  4. Go to the chalkboard. Draw a school. Erase the roof of the school. Write the name of the teacher of English.

COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING

¨  Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is a language teaching tradition which has been developed in the United Kingdom in 1970’s

¨  CLT is seen as an approach instead of a method. CLT is regarded more as an approach since the aims of CLT are a) to make the communicative competence the goal of language teaching and b) to develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication (Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 66).

¨  CLT deals more with assumptions about language and language learning and Larsen-Freeman (1986) names it the Communicative Approach

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT LANGUAGE OF CLT

In Richards and Rodgers’ s view (1986: 71), CLT has a rich

theoretical base at the level of language theory. At least

four basic assumptions about language are proposed.

1. Language is a system for the expression of meaning.

2. The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.

3. The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.

4. The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.

NATURAL APPROACH

¨  The Natural Approach is a philosophy of language teaching proposed by Tracy Terrel, a teacher of Spanish in California. His philosophy, which was introduced in 1977, has been developed by combining it with Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition.

¨  In the Natural Approach the emphasis is on the exposure of the target language. The exposure is often called input. The Natural Approach is meant to provide comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985:

¨  This can be done by discussing topics if interest, games, tasks, and the like.  In learning teaching processes, language learners may respond in either the first or second language. Language taechers do not concentrate on laerners’s errors and their errors are not corrected. Language learners study grammar at home, not at school. The study of grammar is meant to maintain the conscious Monitor. Grammar intrsuction has a limimited role. The language syllabus will vary according to student interest and can be getotiated since according to theory, input need only be comprehensible and interesting.

¨  A similar method was known a long before the Natural Approach was introduced. The Natural Method was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. Even though it is named the Natural Approach, the approach not only has assumptions about language and language learning but also procedures of language teaching.

¨  The two different methods have many things in common. The main similarity is that both of the two methods emphasize the natural process of language learning. The difference between the two is that in the first Natural Method language learners are not allowed to use the first language. The sequence of language material of the first Natural Method is also different. The order of presentation is: listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar while the order, of the Natural Approach is that comprehension (listening and reading) precedes production (speaking and writing).

¨  Krashen and Terrel (1983: 18) state that language learning is different from acquisition. Language learning is ‘knowing about the rules’. Language learners have conscious knowledge about grammar. Language acquiring, on the hand, is picking up the target language. Language learners develop ability in the target language by using it in natural, communicative situations

¨  The natural Method seems to consider a concept that language learners do not take in everything they hear. Their motives, attitudes and emotional states filter what they hear and therefore affect the rate and quality of language learning (Dulay, Burt, and Krashen, 1982: 45). The affective factors, which they call the “filter”, work together with the “organizer” are subconscious processors in language learning, while a conscious processor in language learning is called the “monitor”.

Principles Of Natural Approach

¨  The first basic principle is that comprehension precedes production (Krashen and Terrel, 1983:20).

¨  In oral language listening precedes speaking while in written language reading precedes writing.

This principle follows from the hypotheses that acquisition is the basis for production ability and understanding messages is the prerequisite to acquisition.

¨  Some of the implications of the principle Krashen and Terrel suggest are that (1) language teachers have to use the target language, (2) the focus of the communication in language class will be on a topic of interest for their students, (3) language teachers have to help their students understand.

¨  The second general principle of the Natural Approach is that production is allowed to emerge in stages (Krashen and Terrel, 1983:20). The stages seem to have been developed from the principle of first language learning: how a child acquires his/her mother tongue.

¨  The acquisition of another language consists of five stages. The first stage is that language learners respond by using nonverbal communication, such as pointing or nodding, etc. The second stage is that language learners respond with a single word, such as yes, no, fine, good, etc. The third stage is that language learners respond with combination of two or three words, such as me fine, no study, where go, etc. The fourth stage is that language learners use phrases in responding’ such as where you going?,’ I am study, etc. The fourth stage is that language learners use more complex sentences.

¨  The third general principle is that the course syllabus consists of communicative goals (Krashen and Terret 1983: 20). The implication of this principle is that language syllabus is organized by topic, not grammatical items. Krashen and Terrel believe that by having communicative goals language learners will acquire (not learn) grammar effectively while they will acquire grammar very little if the goal of learning is grammaticaL Therefore, at the beginning stages the emphasis of language learning is communicative ability, not grammatical accuracy. It does not mean that the ability of communicating with correct grammar is ignored.

¨  Later, language learners will acquire the target language, meaning that they will be able to produce sentences with correct grammar

¨  This principle also has an implication on language testing. If communication is the goal, then it is the overall ability to communicate, not grammatical accuracy, which must be tested (Terrel, 1982: 1971).

¨  However, the proponents of the approach knowledge that judgments of fluency will many cases be subjective but language teachers are suggested to make those judgements with a reasonable degree of accuracy.

¨  The fourth general principle of the Natural Method is that the activities done in the classroom aimed at acquisition must foster a lowering of the affective filter of the students (Xrashen and Tenet 1983: 21)

¨  This can be done by creating an environment conducive to acquisition. Language learners create such an environment by encouraging language learners to express their ideas, opinions, desires, emotions and feelings freely; the learners and the teacher should have good rapport among them in order for the learners to have low anxiety. The language to learn also has an important role in creating the environment. That is why the topic of the class should be interesting and relevant to the learners.

¨  Another principle which may be regarded as one of the principles of the natural Approach is the way the approach treats the error. Terrel (1982:165) suggests that error correction be done only in written assignments which focus specifically on form and never oral communication. Since language learners are encouraged to say new and interesting things with their knowledge of the target language, they are likely to produce errors. Correction of the errors will make the students feel uncomfortable and embarrassed in front of their peers. Such a feeling will not motivate the students to learn and acquire the target language. It is believed that the correction of speech errors is negative in terms of motivation and attitude towards the target language.