Teaching Methods and Approaches

The Grammar-Translation Approach

This approach was historically used in teaching Greek and Latin. The approach
was generalized to teaching modern languages.
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.
For a review of elements of grammar teaching click here.

The Direct Approach

This approach was developed initially as a reaction to the grammar-translation
approach in an attempt to integrate more use of the target language in
instruction.
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.
Advanced students read literature for comprehension and pleasure. Literary
texts are not analyzed grammatically. The culture associated with the target
language is also taught inductively. Culture is considered an important aspect of
learning the language.

The Reading Approach

This approach is selected for practical and academic reasons. For specific uses
of the language in graduate or scientific studies. The approach is for people who

do not travel abroad for whom reading is the one usable skill in a foreign
language.
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

This method is based on the principles of behavior psychology. It adapted many
of the principles and procedures of the Direct Method, in part as a reaction to
the lack of speaking skills of the Reading Approach.
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. There is
an extended pre-reading period at the beginning of the course. Great
importance is given to precise native-like pronunciation. Use of the mother
tongue by the teacher is permitted, but discouraged among and by the students.
Successful responses are reinforced; great care is taken to prevent learner
errors. There is a tendency to focus on manipulation of the target language and
to disregard content and meaning.
Hints for Using Audio-lingual Drills in L2 Teaching
1. The teacher must be careful to insure that all of the utterances which students
will make are actually within the practiced pattern. For example, the use of the
AUX verb have should not suddenly switch to have as a main verb.
2. Drills should be conducted as rapidly as possibly so as to insure automaticity
and to establish a system.

3. Ignore all but gross errors of pronunciation when drilling for grammar practice.
4. Use of shortcuts to keep the pace o drills at a maximum. Use hand motions,
signal cards, notes, etc. to cue response. You are a choir director.
5. Use normal English stress, intonation, and juncture patterns conscientiously.
6. Drill material should always be meaningful. If the content words are not
known, teach their meanings.
7. Intersperse short periods of drill (about 10 minutes) with very brief alternative
activities to avoid fatigue and boredom.
8. Introduce the drill in this way:
a. Focus (by writing on the board, for example)
b. Exemplify (by speaking model sentences)
c. Explain (if a simple grammatical explanation is needed)
d. Drill
9. Dont stand in one place; move about the room standing next to as many
different students as possible to spot check their production. Thus you will know
who to give more practice to during individual drilling.
10. Use the "backward buildup" technique for long and/or difficult patterns.
--tomorrow
--in the cafeteria tomorrow
--will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow
--Those boys will be eating in the cafeteria tomorrow.
11. Arrange to present drills in the order of increasing complexity of student
response. The question is: How much internal organization or decision making
must the student do in order to make a response in this drill. Thus: imitation first,
single-slot substitution next, then free response last.

Community Language Learning

Curran, Charles A. Counseling-Learning in Second Languages. Apple River,
Illinois: Apple River Press, 1976.

This methodology is not based on the usual methods by which languages are
taught. Rather the approach is patterned upon counseling techniques and
adapted to the peculiar anxiety and threat as well as the personal and language
problems a person encounters in the learning of foreign languages.
Consequently, the learner is not thought of as a student but as a client. The
native instructors of the language are not considered teachers but, rather are
trained in counseling skills adapted to their roles as language counselors.
The language-counseling relationship begins with the client's linguistic confusion
and conflict. The aim of the language counselor's skill is first to communicate an
empathy for the client's threatened inadequate state and to aid him linguistically.
Then slowly the teacher-counselor strives to enable him to arrive at his own
increasingly independent language adequacy. This process is furthered by the
language counselor's ability to establish a warm, understanding, and accepting
relationship, thus becoming an "other-language self" for the client. The process
involves five stages of adaptation:
STAGE 1
The client is completely dependent on the language counselor.
1. First, he expresses only to the counselor and in English what he wishes to
say to the group. Each group member overhears this English exchange but no
other members of the group are involved in the interaction.
2. The counselor then reflects these ideas back to the client in the foreign
language in a warm, accepting tone, in simple language in phrases of five or six
words.
3. The client turns to the group and presents his ideas in the foreign language.
He has the counselor's aid if he mispronounces or hesitates on a word or
phrase. This is the client's maximum security stage.
STAGE 2
1. Same as above.
2. The client turns and begins to speak the foreign language directly to the
group.
3. The counselor aids only as the client hesitates or turns for help. These small
independent steps are signs of positive confidence and hope.
STAGE 3
1. The client speaks directly to the group in the foreign language. This presumes
that the group has now acquired the ability to understand his simple phrases.

2. Same as 3 above. This presumes the client's greater confidence,

independence, and proportionate insight into the relationship of phrases,
grammar, and ideas. Translation is given only when a group member desires it.
STAGE 4
1. The client is now speaking freely and complexly in the foreign language.
Presumes group's understanding.
2. The counselor directly intervenes in grammatical error, mispronunciation, or
where aid in complex expression is needed. The client is sufficiently secure to
take correction.
STAGE 5
1. Same as stage 4.
2. The counselor intervenes not only to offer correction but to add idioms and
more elegant constructions.
3. At this stage the client can become counselor to the group in stages 1, 2, and
3.

The Silent Way

Caleb Gattegno, Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way. New
York City: Educational Solutions, 1972.
Procedures
This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in
order to achieve the following:
To avoid the use of the vernacular. 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 permit almost from the start a switch from the lone voice of the
teacher using the foreign language to a number of voices using it. This
introduces components of pitch, timbre and intensity that will constantly reduce
the impact of one voice and hence reduce imitation and encourage personal
production of one's own brand of the sounds.

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
a 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.
Materials
The complete set of materials utilized as the language learning progresses
include:
A set of colored wooden rods A set of wall charts containing words of a
"functional" vocabulary and some additional ones; a pointer for use with the
charts in Visual Dictation A color coded phonic chart(s) Tapes or discs, as
required; films Drawings and pictures, and a set of accompanying worksheets
Transparencies, three texts, a Book of Stories, worksheets

Functional-notional Approach
Finocchiaro, M. & Brumfit, C. (1983). The Functional-Notional Approach. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.
This method of language teaching is categorized along with others under the rubric of a
communicative approach. The method stresses a means of organizing a language
syllabus. The emphasis is on breaking down the global concept of language into units of
analysis in terms of communicative situations in which they are used.
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 ones ideas; expressing ones 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 anothers success
expressing concern for other peoples 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.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/jmora