RECAP 3 APPROACHES OF ELT

THE GRAMMAR-
THE AUDIO-LINGUAL METHOD The communicative method
TRANSLATION METHOD

Goals - To help students be able to - Speaking and listening skill - To enable learners to
read literature written in the - Pronunciation and grammar communicate in the target
target language. - Use the target language language.
- To do this, student need: communicatively To do this, students:
+ To learn about the grammar - Students need to overlearn the - Need to know that many
rules and vocabulary of the target language : to learn to use it different forms can be used to
target language. automatically without stopping to perform a function and also that a
- It is believed that studying think. The students achieve it by single form can serve a variety of
a foreign language provides forming new habit in L2 and functions.
students with good mental overcoming the habit of L1. - Need knowledge of linguistics
exercise which helps forms, meaning and functions.
develop their mind. - Must be able to choose from
among the most appropriate
form, given the social context
 and the roles of the interlocutors.
- Must be able to manage the
process of negotiating with their
interlocutors.

Roles of - Teacher is the authority - The teacher as leader: directing - Teacher —> facilitates
teachers - Students do as the and controlling the language communication, an advisor, a co-
and teachers say and learn behavior, providing a good communicator.
students what the teachers know model for imitation . + The teacher facilitates
- Students are imitators of the communication in the
teacher’s model or the tape; classrooms. In this role, one of
follow the teacher’s directions his major responsibilities is to
and respond as accurately and as establish situations likely to
rapidly as possible promote communication.
+ During the activities, he acts as
an advisor, answering students’
questions and monitoring their
performance. He might make a
note of their errors to be worked
on at a later time during more
 accuracy-based activities
+ At other times he might be a co-
communicator engaging in
communicative activity along
with students.
- Students—> communicators
+ Students are communicators.
They are actively engaged in
negotiating meaning in trying to
make themselves understood

Some ₋ Students are taught to translate ₋ New vocabulary and structural - The most obvious characteristic
characte the reading from one language patterns are presented through of CLT is that almost everything
ristics of to another. The readings are dialogs. The dialogs are learned is done with a communicative
teaching/ about some aspect of the through imitation and repetition. intent.
learning culture of the target language Students’ successful responses are - Activities that are truly
community. positively reinforced. communicative have three
₋ Grammar is taught ₋ Grammar is induced from the feature:
deductively. examples given, explicit grammar / Information gap is a collaborative
₋ Students memorize native- rules are not provided. activity, whose purpose is for students
 language equivalents for target ₋ Cultural information is to effectively obtain information that
language-language vocabulary contextualized in the dialogs or was previously unknown to them, in the
words. presented by the teacher. TL.
₋ ₋ (Very little use of the mother / Choice:students can choose the
₋ (Classes are taught in the tongue by teachers is permitted. language (forms, function.,,,)
native language, little use of ₋ Vocabulary is strictly limited and themselves.
the target language learned in context. / Feedback: negotiate meaning
₋ Vocab is taught in the form of ₋ There is dependence on mimicry, - Another characteristic of CLT is
lists of isolated words memorization of set phrases, and the use of authentic materials.
₋ Long elaborate explanations overlearning. - Activities in CLT are often
of intricacies of grammar ₋ Structures are sequenced by means carried out by students in small
₋ Little attention is paid to of contrastive analysis and taught groups
contents of texts which are one at a time.
treated as exercise in ₋ Structural patterns are taught using
grammatical analysis. repetitive drills.
₋ Often the only drills are ₋ New material is presented in dialog
exercises in translating from form.
the target language to the ₋ There is much use of tapes,
native one language labs, and visual aids.
₋ Reading of classical texts is ₋ Great importance is attached to
 begun early. pronunciation.
₋ Little or no attention to ₋ Successful responses are
pronunciation. immediately reinforced.
₋ There is little or no grammatical
₋ Grammar provides rules for
explanation. Grammar is taught by
putting words together, and
inductive explanation
instruction often focuses on
₋ There is great effort to get students
form and inflection of words.
to produce error-free utterances.
(Grammar is taught by deductive ₋ There is a tendency to manipulate
expanantion)) language and disregard content.

The - Main communication is between - There is student-to-student - The teacher may present some
nature of student and teacher. interaction in chain drills or when part of the lesson.
T-St & - A little communication occurs students take different roles in - At other times, he is a facilitator
St-St between students and student. dialogs, but this interaction is of the activities, but he doesn’t
teacher- directed. always himself interact with the
- Most of he the interaction is students.
between teacher and students - Sometimes is co-communicator
and is initiated by the teacher but more often establishes
 situation that prompt
communication between and
among students
- Students interact a great deal
with one another. They do this in
various configurations: pairs,
triads, small
- groups, and whole group

Areas of - Vocabulary and grammar - The students are mastering the Language functions might be
emphasized over forms. Typically, a
language are emphasized. sound system and grammatical functional syllabus is used.
& - Pronunciation receives little patterns.
language attention. - Vocabulary is ept to a minimum
skills - Reading and writing are the - The natural order of skills
Students work with language at
primary skills that the presentation is: listening , the discourse or suprasentential level.
They learn about cohesion and
students work on. speaking, reading and writing.
- Very little (if any) is given The oral skills receive most of coherence.
to speaking and listening. the attention.
Students work on all four skills from
- Pronunciation is taught frm the the beginning.
keginning, often by students
working in language laboratories Just as oral communication is seen to
take place through negotiation between
on discrimination between
 speaker and listener, so too is

members and minimal pairs meaning thought to be derived from the

written word through an interaction
between the reader and the

- Judicious use of the students'

native language is permitted in
CLT
- Whenever possible, the target
– In the class, mainly native - L1 interferes with the students’ language should be used not only
Role of
language is used. attempts to master L2. Therefore, during communicative activities,
the
– The meaning of the target L2 is used in the classroom, not but also for explaining the
students’
language is made clear by the students’ L1. activities to the students or in
native
translating it into mother tongue - A contrastive analysis between assigning homework.
language
L1 and L2. - THE TARGET LANGUAGE IS
AS VEHICLE FOR
COMMUNICATION NOT
JUST AN OBJECT TO BE
STUDIED.
 - Getting correct answer
How the
from students is so - Errors of form are tolerated
teachers during fluency-based activities
important. and are seen as a natural outcome
respond
- The teacher will supply the - Student errors are to be avoided. of the development of
to communication skills
correct answer if students - Students can have limited
students’ linguistic knowledge and still be
make errors or do not know
errors successful communicators
an answer.

Typical 1. Translation of a Literary 1. Dialog memorization

techniqu Passage (Memorizing an opening dialog using
es (Translating target language to mimicry & applied role-playing)
native language) 2. Backward build-up drill
2. Reading comprehension (Expansion Drill)
questions ( Teacher breaks a line into several
(Finding information, make parts, students repeat each part starting
inferences and realting to personal at the end of the sentence and
experience) “expanding” backwards through the
3. Antonyms/ Synonyms sentence, adding each part in sequence)
4. Cognates
3. Repitition Drill
(Learning spelling/sound patterns
(Students repeat teacher’s model as
that correspond between L1& the
quickly and accurately as possible).
target language)
4. Chain Drill
5. Deductive application of
(Students ask and answer each other
Rule
one-by-one in a circular chain around
(Understanding grammar rules &
the classroom )
their exceptions, then applying
5. Single Slot Substitution Drill
them to new examples)
(Teacher states a line from the dialog,
6. Fill-in-the-blanks
then uses a word or a phrase as a “cue”
7. Memorization
that students, when repeating the line,
8. Use words in sentences
must substitute into the sentence in the
9. Writing composition
correct place)
6. Multiple-slot Substitution Drill
(Same as the Single Slot drill, except
that there are multiple cues to be
substituted into the line)
7. Transformation Drill
(Teacher provides a sentence that must
be turned into something else, for
example a question to be turned into a
statement, an active sentence to be
turned into a negative statement, etc)
8. Question-and-answer Drill
(Students should answer or ask
questions very quickly)
9. Use of Minimal Pairs
(Using contrastive analysis, teacher
selects a pair of words that sound
identical except for a single sound that
typically poses difficulty for the
learners – students are to pronounce
and differentiate the two words)
10. Complete the Dialog
(Selected words are erased from a line
in the dialog – students must find and
insert)

11. Grammar Games

(Various games designed to practice a
grammar point in context, using lots of
repetition)