Approaches and Methods in

Language Teaching
Jack C. Richards
&
Theodore S. Rodgers

V.Peruvalluthi, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of English
Thiruvalluvar University
Vellore
valluthi@gmail.com
 Traditional Method The
Grammar Translation Method
• Johann Sedenstuker
• Karl Plotz
• H.S.Ollendorf
• Johann Meidinger

• It was known as the Prussian Method in

The USA
 Principle Characteristics of Grammar
Translation Method

• Goal of foreign language study is to

read its literature

• Reading & writing major focus;

speaking & listening generally
ignored
• Vocabulary based on reading text

• Sentence is the basic unit of

teaching & learning practice
• Accuracy emphasized

• Grammar taught deductively

(usually the terminology used for
studying Latin Grammar)

• Student’s native language medium

of instruction
 The Reform Movement
(Based on Applied Linguistics)
• Beginning of a scientific approach
• In 1880s: Linguists Henry Sweet
(England); Wilhelm Vietor (Germany); &
Paul Passy (France)

• In 1886 the International Phonetic

Association formed & its International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) designed
• It advocated:

– The study of spoken language

– Phonetic training
– Use of conversation texts
– Inductive approach for teaching
grammar
– Focus only on target language (mother
tongue avoided)
 Direct Method
• Parallel to the Reform Movement

• A “natural method” based on naturalistic

principles in language learning

• In 1860 L. Sauver’s Boston language school:

Natural Method

• Maxmilian Berlitz’s “Berlitz Method”:

Natural Method
 Berlitz Method (Theory)
• Classroom instruction in target language
• Everyday vocabulary & sentences taught
• Graded oral communication for small classes
• Inductive grammar teaching
• New teaching points introduced orally
• Concrete vocabulary: demonstration
• Abstract vocabulary: association of ideas
• Speech & Comprehension taught
• Correct pronunciation & grammar
emphasized
 Berlitz School Guidelines
(Strategy)
• Never translate: demonstrate
• Never explain: act
• Never make a speech: ask questions
• Never imitate mistakes: correct
• Never speak with single words: use
sentences
• Never speak too much: make students
speak much
• Never use the book: use your lesson plan
• Never jump around: follow your plan
• Never go too fast: keep the pace of the
student
• Never speak too slowly: speak normally
• Never speak too quickly: speak normally
• Never speak too loudly: speak naturally
• Never be impatient: take it easy
• Limitation of the method: Teacher
should be very competent
 Major Trends in 20th Century
Language Teaching

• Language teaching became professional

in the 20th century.
• Drew form Linguistics & Psychology

– To develop principles & procedures

for the design of teaching methods &
materials

– The method concept in teaching:

teaching practices based on particular
theory of language & language learning
was adopted
 Language Teaching Approaches &
Methods : Assumptions

• An approach or method refers to a

theoretically consistent set of teaching
procedures that define best practice in
language teaching
• Particular approaches and methods, if
followed precisely, will lead to more
effective levels of language learning
than alternative ways of teaching

• The quality of language teaching will

improve if teachers use the best
available approaches and methods
 Why Study ELT
Approaches & Methods?

• The study of approaches and methods

provides teachers with a view of how
the field of language teaching has
evolved
• Approaches & methods can be studied
not as prescriptions for how to teach
but as a source of well-used practices,
which teachers can adapt or implement
based on their own needs
• Experience in using different teaching
approaches and methods can provide
teachers with basic teaching skills that
they can later add to or supplement as
they develop teaching experience
 Approach, Method & Technique
(Edward Anthony, 1963)

• An approach is a set of correlative

assumptions dealing with the nature of
language teaching & learning. It is
axiomatic.
• Method is an overall plan for the
orderly presentation of language
material based upon the selected
approach. It is procedural.
• A technique is implementational—that
which actually takes place in a
classroom. Techniques must be
consistent with a method, and therefore
in harmony with an approach as well.
• Approach is the level at which
assumptions and beliefs about language
and language learning are specified
• Method is the level at which theory is
put into practice and at which choices
are made about the particular skills to
be taught, the content to be taught and
the order in which the content will be
presented
• Technique is the level at which
classroom procedures are described
 Format of Approach & Methods

(A) Approach (assumptions)

• Theory of language
• Theory of language learning
 (B) Design
• Objectives
• Content choice and organization: The
syllabus
• Types of learning & teaching activities
• Learner roles
• Teacher roles
• The role of instructional materials
 Role of instructional material
• The primary goal of material:

• To present content
• To practice content
• To facilitate communication between
learners
• To enable learners to practice content
without the teacher’s help
• The form of materials:

• Textbook
• Audiovisuals
• Computer software
• The relation of materials to other
sources of input

• Whether they serve as the major

source of input or only as a minor
component of it
• The abilities of teachers

• Their competence in the language or

degree of training & experience
 (C) Procedure
• Three dimensions of a method:

• (a) the use of teaching activities (drills,

dialogues, information-gap activities,
etc.) to present new language and to
clarify and demonstrate formal,
communicative, or other aspects of
target language
• (b) the ways in which particular teaching
activities are used for practicing
language

• (c) the procedures & techniques used in

giving feedback to learners concerning
the form or content of their utterances
or sentences
 Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT)
• Theory of language
• Language as communication
• Linguistic theory must incorporate
communication & culture (Hymes in
contrast to Chomsky’s theory on
competence)
• Competences: Grammatical;
Sociolinguistic; Discourse; & Strategic
(Henry Widdowson)
• Theory of Learning

• 1. Communication principle: Activities

that involve real communication promote
learning

• 2. Task principle: Activities in which

language is used for carrying out
meaningful tasks promote learning
• 3. Meaningfulness principle:
Language that is meaningful to the
learner supports the learning
process

• Note: Language activities are

consequently selected according to how
well they engage the learner in
meaningful & authentic language use
(rather than merely mechanical practice
of language pattern)
• The cognitive aspect [of learning]
involves the internalisation of plans for
creating appropriate behaviour. (From
grammatical rules; vocabulary; & social
conventions governing speech)

• The behavioural aspect [of learning]

involves the automation of these plans
to be converted into fluent performance
in real time. This occurs mainly through
practice in converting plans into
performance
• Design

• Objectives
• To reflect specific aspects of
communicative competence according to
the learner’s proficiency level &
communicative needs
• The Syllabus

• A purely procedural syllabus which lists,

in more or less detail, the types of
tasks to be attempted in the classroom
and suggests an order of complexity for
tasks of the same kind
• Types of learning & teaching
activities

• Functional communication activities

• (comparing, sequencing, discovering,
solving problems from shared clues)

• Social interaction activities

• (conversation/discussion sessions;
dialogues/role plays; simulations; skits;
improvisations & debates)
• Learner roles

• Should acknowledge cooperative

approach; successful communication is
an accomplishment jointly achieved &
acknowledged
• Teacher roles

• Facilitator
• Organizer
• Guide
• Researcher
• Needs analyst
• Counselor
• Group process manager
• The role of instructional materials

• Text-based materials: theme, task

oriented thematic development,
practice situation, stimulus
presentation, comprehension &
paraphrase
• Task-based materials: games, role plays,
simulations
• Realia : signs, magazines,
advertisements, newspapers, maps,
pictures, symbols, graphs & charts
• Procedure
• Presentation of brief dialogue
• Oral practice of the dialogue
• Questions & answers on the dialogue
• Question & answer on related personal
experiences
• Study of one communicative structure
• Learner discovery of rules
• Oral production
• Written homework assignment
• Evaluation: oral
 The Oral Approach
&
Situational Language
Teaching
• Developed by British applied linguists
from 1930s to 1960s.
• Harold Palmer, A.S. Hornby & West

– They attempted to develop a more

scientific method for an oral approach to
teaching English
– Vocabulary control: a) vocabulary was an
important aspect in learning a foreign
language b) increased emphasis on reading
skills as the goal of foreign language study
• Grammar control: Palmer viewed
grammar as the underlying sentence
patterns of the spoken language

• “substitution tables” were evolved

by the linguists which could be used
to help internalize the rules of
English sentence structure
• They developed an approach to
methodology that involved systematic
principles of

– Selection: The procedures by which lexical

& grammatical content was chosen
– Gradation: Principles by which the
organization & sequencing of content were
determined
– Presentation: Techniques used for
presentation & practice of items in a course
• In 1960s Australian George Pittman and
his colleagues, especially, Gloria Tate
were responsible for developing an
influential set of teaching materials
based on the Situational Approach
 Approach

– Theory of Language: A type of British

“structuralism”—different from American
structuralism—the notion of “situation”;
Pittman declared: “Our principal classroom
activity in the teaching of English structure
will be the oral practice of structures. This
oral practice of controlled sentence
patterns should be given in situations
designed to give the greatest amount of
practice in English speech to the pupil.”
• Theory of Learning: (Process oriented)
It adopts an inductive approach to the
teaching of grammar. The meanings of
words or structures is not to be given
through explanation in either the native
language or the target language but is
to be induced from the way the form is
used in a situation. The learner is then
expected to apply the language learned
in the classroom to situations outside
the classroom.
 Design

• Objectives: To teach a practical

command of the four basic skills of
language taught through structure.
Accuracy in both pronunciation and
grammar is regarded as crucial, and
errors are to be avoided at all costs.
• The Syllabus: Uses a structural syllabus
& word list. A structural syllabus is a
list of the basic structures & sentence
patterns of English, arranged according
to their presentation. Eg. :This is
…/That is … book/pencil/ruler/desk.
• Note: “Situation” refers to the manner
of presenting & practicing sentence
patterns
• Types of learning & teaching activities: The
situation will be controlled carefully to
teach the new language material in such
way that there can be no doubt in the
learner’s mind of the meaning of what he
hears.
The practice techniques employed
generally consist of guided repetition &
substitution activities, including chorus
repetition, dictation, drills, & controlled
oral-based reading & writing tasks
including pair practice & group work
• Learner Roles: In the initial stages of
learning, the learner is required simply
to listen & repeat what the teacher says
& to respond to questions & commands.
[Learner has no control over the
content.] Later, more active
participation like learners initiating
responses & asking each other
questions.
• Teacher roles: The teacher’s function is
threefold: a) in the presentation stage
the teacher serves as a model, setting
up situations in which the need for the
target structure is created & then
modeling the new structures to repeat
b) the teacher is required to be a
skillful manipulator, using questions,
commands, & other cues to elicit
correct sentences from the learners
c) during the practice phase the
teacher corrects errors
• The role of instructional materials:
Situational Language Teaching is
dependent upon a textbook (containing
tightly organized lessons planned around
different grammatical structures) &
visual aids (like wall charts, flashcards,
pictures, stick figures, etc.).
• Note: The teacher is expected to be
the master of his textbook.
 Procedure
• Classroom procedures move from
controlled to freer practice of
structures & from oral use of sentence
patterns to their automatic use in
speech, reading & writing
• The sequence of activities are:
– 1) Listening practice
– 2) Choral imitation
– 3) Individual imitation
– 4) Isolation of sounds, words, word groups
– 5) Building up to a new model
– 6) Elicitation
– 7) Substitution drilling
– 8) Question & Answer drilling
– 9) Correction
– 10) Supplemented by reading & writing
The Audio-lingual Method
• In 1929 the Coleman Report recommended a
reading-based approach to foreign language
teaching for use in American schools &
colleges. This emphasized teaching the
comprehension of texts.
• Sentence patterns, grammar & vocabulary
were introduced without any standardization
at the whim of the textbook writer.
• After the Second World War, the government
commissioned American universities to
develop foreign language programs for
military personnel. Thus the Army Specialized
Training Program (ASTP) was established in
1943.
• Leonard Bloomfield at Yale University had
developed the “informant method”. A native
speaker would be an informant, who served as
a source of phrases, vocabulary & sentences
for imitation in the presence of a linguist
trainer (training was given for linguists &
anthropologists).
• The students & the linguist were able to take
part in guided conversation with the
informant thus learning to speak the foreign
language & understanding much of its basic
grammar. Students studied 10 hrs. a day for 6
days a week: 15 hrs. drill with native speakers;
20 to 30 hrs. of private study spread over two
or three 6-week sessions. Was very effective.
It was adopted by the army and came to be
also known as the “Army Method”.
• The methodology of the Army Method derived
from the intensity of contact with the target
language rather than from any well-developed
methodological base. The linguists who
developed this method for the army were not
really interested in language teaching. The
glamour of this method slowly faded away &
new innovative methods were adopted.
• Charles Fries of the English Language Institute
of Michigan University applied the principles
of structural linguistics to language teaching.
For Fries, grammar or “structure” was the
starting point. The structure of the language
was identified with its basic sentence patterns
& grammatical structures. The language was
taught by systematic attention to
pronunciation & by intensive oral drilling.
Pattern practice was a basic classroom
technique.
• The American linguists used the method of
contrastive analysis of their native language &
the target foreign language to enhance the
learning process. The approach developed by
them became variously known the Oral
Approach, the Aural-Oral Approach & the
Structural Approach.
• In the mid-1950s, the linguistic principles of
the Aural-Oral Approach were incorporated
with the state-of-the-art psychological
learning theory which came to be known as
Audiolingualism.
• Audiolingual Method combined structural
linguistic theory, contrastive analysis, aural-
oral procedures & behaviorist psychology.
(Term Audiolingualism coined by Professor
Nelson Brooks in 1964.)
 Approach
• Theory of language: Structural linguistics had
developed as a reaction to traditional
grammar which was linked to logic &
philosophy. In Structural Linguistics, Linguistic
levels were thought of as systems within
systems pyramidally structured: phonemic
systems (sounds) led to morphemic systems
(stems, prefixes, suffixes) leading to higher
level syntactic systems (phrases, clauses, &
sentence types).
• Another important tenet of Structural
Linguistics was that the primary medium of
language is oral: Speech is language.
 Theory of learning
• Behaviorism, like structural linguistics, is an
empirically based approach to the study of
human behavior. Three crucial elements in
learning: stimulus, response & reinforcement.
(Harvard behaviorist B. F. Skinner.)
 Design
• Includes short-range & long-range objectives
(Brooks)
• Short-range: First, control of structures of
sound, form & order in the new language;
second, acquaintance with vocabulary items
that bring content into these structures; &
third, meaning, in terms of the significance
these verbal symbols have for those who speak
the language natively.
• Long-range objectives: Must be language as
the native speaker uses it. There must be
some knowledge of a second language as it is
possessed by a true bilingualist.
 Syllabus
• The starting point is a linguistic syllabus, which
contains the key items of phonology,
morphology, and syntax of the language
arranged according to their order of
presentation. These may have been derived
from a contrastive analysis of the native &
target languages in order to remove the major
difficulties encountered by the learner.
• When reading & writing are introduced,
students are taught to read & write what they
have already learned to say orally. An attempt
is made to minimize the possibilities for
making mistakes in both speaking & writing by
using a tightly structured approach to the
presentation of new language items. At more
advanced levels, more complex reading &
writing tasks are introduced.
 The role of instructional materials
• Course begins with listening, repeating &
responding.
• The teacher’s book would contain structured
lessons mainly dialogues for practice.
• Books are provided for drills & exercises
 Conclusion
• Chomsky’s theory of transformational
grammar proposed that the fundamental
properties of language derive from innate
aspects of the mind & how humans process
experience through language. Chomsky
argued that such a learning theory could not
serve as a model of how humans learn a
language since much of human language use
is not
• imitated behavior but is created anew from
underlying knowledge of abstract rules.
Sentences are not learned by imitation &
repetition but “generated” from learner’s
underlying “competence”. This theoretical
shift has reduced the importance of this
approach though it is still relevant in language
learning.
 Task-Based Language Teaching
(TBLT)
Assumptions
• Activities that involve real communication
are essential for language learning
• Activities in which language is used for
carrying out meaningful tasks promote
learning
• Language that is meaningful to the learner
supports the learning process
 Approach
• Theory of language

• Language is primarily a means of making

meaning
• Multiple models of language inform TBI
• Lexical units are central in language use
and language learning
• “Conversation” is the central focus of
language & the keystone of language
acquisition
 • Theory of learning

• Tasks provide both the input and output

processing necessary for language
acquisition
• Task activity & achievement are
motivational
• Learning difficulty can be negotiated
and fine-tuned for particular
pedagogical purposes
 Design

• Objective

• To give the learner the ability to

communicate accurately & effectively in
the most common English-language
activities they may be involved in
 Syllabus

• Course content includes:

– Language structures
– Functions
– Topics & themes
– Macro-skills: lsrw
– Competencies
– Text types
– Vocabulary targets
 Two types of tasks

• Real-world tasks, which are designed to

practice or rehearse those tasks that
are found to be important in a needs
analysis and turn out to be important &
useful in the real world
• Pedagogical tasks, which have a
psycholinguistic basis in SLA theory &
research but do not necessarily reflect
real-world tasks
 Task type

• Diagram & formations

– Naming parts of a diagram with numbers &
letters of the alphabets as instructed

• Drawing
• Drawing geometrical figures/formations from
sets of verbal instructions
• Theme: planning a vacation
– Decide where you can go
– Booking a flight
– Choosing a hotel
– Booking a room
• Theme: application to a university
– Applying to the university
– Corresponding with the department
– Inquiring about financial support
– Selecting the courses
– Registering by phone
– Calculating paying your fees
 Types of learning & teaching activities
– Tasks to generate types of interaction

• Jigsaw tasks
• Information-gap tasks
• Problem-solving tasks
• Decision-making tasks
• Opinion exchange tasks
 • Characteristics of tasks
• One-way or two-way
• Convergent or divergent
• Collaborative or competitive
• Single or multiple outcomes
• Concrete or abstract language
• Simple or complex processing
• Simple or complex language
• Reality based or not reality based
 Learner roles
• Group participant
• Monitor
• Risk-taker & innovator

Teacher roles
• Selector & sequence of tasks
• Preparing learner for tasks
• Consciousness-raising
 The role of instructional materials

• Pedagogic materials: teacher resource

books
• Realia: Newspapers, Television,
Internet,
 Procedure

• Pretask activity
• Task activity
• Posttask activity
 Willis model

• Introduction to topic & task

• The task cycle: Task, Planning, Report,
Posttask listening
• Language focus: Analysis, Practice