teaching methods

Teaching Methods
O For centuries, people have attempted to learn
foreign/second languages through formal
education.
O The methods and approaches employed have
changed through the years, having been
impacted by advancements in the theories
and psychology of learning.
O Basic assumptions about why and how people
learn, shape the way in which languages have
been taught.

WHAT IS A TEACHING METHOD?
 We define the term "TEACHING METHOD" as
being comprised of:
 An ORIENTATION/APPROACH based on a
pedagogical philosophy and/or learning theory
about how students learn language best. This
establishes the goals of language instruction.
 Learning objectives, kinds of tasks learners are to
perform, and perception of learner/teacher roles;
 The interaction style of teacher/learner, attitude
toward corrections, and the desired classroom
atmosphere.

• Some methods focus on communication skills
and place the greatest emphasis on being able
to express oneself; others focus on grammatical
accuracy. Some methods suggest that reading
and writing should be secondary to spoken
language emphasis, others suggest that
vocabulary and grammar instruction should
be emphasized.
•

ORIENTATIONS/APPROACHES TO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE: A set of assumptions about language and learning
forms the basis for each orientation/approach.
• 1. Grammar-Based Orientation/Approach
• 2. Communication Orientation/Approach
• 3. Empiricist Orientation/Approach
• 4. The Rationalist Orientation/Approach
• 5. The Affective-Humanistic Approach
• 6. Comprehension-Based/Natural Approach
• 7. The Communicative Approach

Teaching Methods
What are the teaching methods?
The types of principles used for instruction are called teaching
methods.
There are many teaching methods depending on what information or
skill the teacher is trying to convey.
The teacher may be flexible and willing to adjust their style according
to their students.
Effective teaching is the base in the success of a student. Here we are
going to discuss four teaching methods:
• Grammar Translation Method
• Direct Method
• Audio Lingual Method
• Communicative Approach

 The GTM is not new one.
 Language teachers have used it for many years. It
was first used in the teaching of the Classical
Language, Latin and Greek. So, it was called
Classical Method. In the earlier centuries this
method was used for the purpose of helping
students in reading foreign language literature.
 It was also hoped that through the study of
grammar, students would become more familiar with
the grammar of their native language.

 The purpose of G.T.M. was to know everything
about some thing rather than the thing itself. According
to Stern (1983) “The first language is maintained as the
reference system in the acquisition of the second
language.”


 In Grammar Translation Method the structure of the foreign
language are taught by comparing and contrasting with those
of the mother tongue.
 Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no
systematic attention is paid to listening or speaking.
 Vocabulary selection is based solely on the reading text used,
and words are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary
study, and memorization. Vocabulary terms are presented
with their translation equivalents, and translation exercises
are prescribed.

 The student’s native language is the medium of
instruction. New items are explained by comparing and
contrasting with those of native tongue and target
language.
 GTM is a very easy method. It proceeds from known to
unknown. As a child already known his mother tongue
and now he learns the equivalents in the target
language.
 As the difficult and lengthy definitions are avoided in
GTM the vocabulary is acquired economically and
effectively. Students can easily get the exact meaning of
the words.

 More stress is on the sentence structure, because the
sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language
practice. According to Howatt (1984:131) “The central
feature was the replacement of the traditional texts by
examplifactory sentence.”
 As the students are taught each and everything by
translating in the mother tongue, so the teachers raise
their expectations high about the students. Howatt
(1984:132).
 GTM is the deductive way of teaching a language,
means that language is taught trough rules rather than
use.

 The teacher feels at ease while teaching through GTM
because they need not to labor for preparing their lesson
and to find out new ways for explaining the words. They
also need to collect different A.V. aids for the preparation
of their lesson.
 In GTM at the early stages the teacher can easily
evaluate the students by asking questions in their native
language.

 In GTM much attention is not paid to oral activities or drill
work, through out the class the students are focused on
reading and writing. Nothing type of conversational
session is held.
 The students become use to of thinking every thing in
their native language first instead of the target language.
 It becomes much difficult to translation each and every
thing in the native language or in the target language for
e.g. the idiomatic expressions can not be translated
exactly.

 GTM teaches the language by rules rather than by use.
 Teaching through GTM makes students passive listeners
because they are not motivated to speak in the class,
most of the time the teacher be the active person in the
class.
 As nothing type of A.V. aids are used in GTM to make
lesson interesting so it seems very dull and boring.

Direct Method
 When GTM lost its popularity in America
towards middle of the 19th century, teachers
set themselves for inventing some better
method exactly on the lines on which a child
learns his mother tongue. The minister of
public instruction of France was the first to use
the name the “Direct Method”. This method
originated in France in 1901.

Direct Method
Definition:
 “Direct Method is a method of teaching a foreign
language especially a modern language through
conversations, discussion and reading in the
language itself, without the use of the pupil’s
language, without translation and without the
study of formal grammar. The words are taught by
pointing to objects or pictures or by performing
actions.” (Webster’s New English Dictionary).

Characteristics of Direct Method
 Direct method is a natural method as it follows the natural principle
of learning, listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
 DM. is an inductive method as it teaches the language by use rather
than by rule.
 Being a natural method DM. lays emphasis on oral teaching. The
learners are strictly motivated to speak in the target language.
 As there is much emphasis on oral training so the pronunciation of
the learners improves a lot. For this purpose a model from a native
speaker of the target language may be presented in the class.
 The target language is taught through the real life examples and
different objects.

Draw backs of Direct Method
Some drawbacks of DM. are as under:
 DM. mostly emphasizes on oral training (listening, speaking) so the
other activities (reading, writing) are left behind.
 All the teachers can teach through this method, only the teachers
who are competent in conversational skills can adopt this method.
 As different A.V. aids are used in this method, and mostly are
expensive so every teacher or institution can not afford the
expenditures.
 Individual attention is very important for this method so the classes
having the small number of students are required for this method.

Characteristics of Direct Method
 In DM. teaching the learners become very active because they have to
participate in all oral sessions.
 DM. aims at the direct bond experience and expression, and learners are
strictly motivated to think in the target language. There is no intervention of
mother tongue in this method.
 The sentence is the part of speech so learners are forced to answer in the
full sentence form instead of yes/ no.
 Thinking in the target language improves writing skills as well. If someone
can express oneself in speaking he can do in writing too.
 Different types of A.V. aids are used in DM. which make the lesson
interesting. It a fact the things learnt through images are remembered for a
long time.

The term ALM was coined by
Nelson Brookes. The ALM was
developed in the United States
during 2nd world war. At the
time there was a need for
people to learn foreign
language rapidly for military
purposes.

 According to Audio-Lingual Method it becomes
more effective for the learner if the items to be
learned in the target language are presented in
form before they are presented in spoken form
before they are seen in written form.
 Explanations of rules are therefore not given until
students have practiced a pattern in a variety of
context.
 Audio-lingual method emphasis on certain
practice techniques, mimicry, memorization and
pattern drills.

 The use of dialogues as the chief means of
presenting the language. Through dialogue
exchange the learners can easily memorize the
sentence structure.
 The purpose of the language learning is to learn
how to use the language to communicate.
 To seek out the native like pronunciation the
native speaker as a model is represented in the
class and the learners learn the native
pronunciation by mimicry.

 The learners are motivated to set a habit of
answering in the target language with out any
interference of the mother tongue.
 Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation
are emphasizedthe use of drills and pattern practice
is a distinctive feature of the Audio-Lingual Method.
 Various kinds of drills such as repetition, inflection,
replacement, restatement, completion etc. are used
in this method.
 Correction of mistakes of pronunciation or grammar
is direct and immediate.

 H. H. Stern (1983) has summed up the major
contribution of Audio-Lingualism to
language teaching thus:
 1.Theory based on linguistic and
psychological principles.
 2. Stressed syntactical progression.
 3. Simple techniques.
 4. Auditory and oral practice.

 Albert Valdman (1964) has questioned the excessive emphasis
on oral drilling in Audio-Lingual teaching. Drills are inherently
unnatural and contrived examples of the use of language.
Audio-Lingual Method is based on the techniques of
memorization and drilling can be tedious and boring.
 The practitioners found that the practical result fell short of
expectations. The students were often found to be unable to
transfer skills acquired through to Audio-Lingualism to real
communication out side the classroom.
 Noam Chomsky rejected the structuralist approach to language
description as well as the behaviorist theory of language
learning. According to Chomsky sentences are not learned by
imitation and repetition but “generated” from the learner’s
underlying “competence.”

 In a typical ALM lesson, students begin with a dialogue designed to
include a particular structural pattern.
 The exercises and drills that follow are all based on the dialogue.
 They give students more practice with the structure being studied.
Emphasis is on development of oral language and most of the class time
is spent repeating the dialogue or doing drills.
 ALM teachers lead the whole class, groups within the class or individual
students, providing a model to be emulated.
 Substitution drills and dialogues form the core of teaching techniques in
the Audiolingual Method.
 A good deal of attention is paid to correct pronunciation. Errors are
corrected immediately to avoid the formation of bad habits.
 This method has generally not produced fluent communicators but even
though its efficacy has been brought into question, this method
continues to be used widely today in both ESL and EFL settings.

Suggestopedia
 This method was developed by a Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator
in 1962 to eliminate the psychological barriers that people have to learning.
 Suggestopedia uses drama, art, physical exercise and de-suggestive/
suggestive communicative psychotherapy with greatest
emphasis on spoken language, though reading and writing are also
taught.
 The physical setting for Suggestopedia is very important. Classes are
small and students sit in comfortable armchairs in a semicircle. On the
walls of the room hang posters from countries where the target
language is spoken as well as posters with grammatical information.
 Lessons begin with the teacher speaking in the students' ’first language
telling the students about the successful and enjoyable experience they
are going to have.

Suggestopedia
 Students are told they will choose a new identity and a
new name in the language they are learning.
 Music is played and deep breathing exercises are used to
induce relaxation. Students do role-playing, sing songs
and use vocabulary as their fears of speaking a foreign
language dissipate. The teacher decides what material to
present, leads all activities and is the center of instruction.

THE SILENT WAY
 The Silent Way makes students responsible for this
own learning and encourages learners to become
independent of the teacher.
 The method gets its name from the fact that the
teacher is silent much of the time.
 During Silent Way lessons, teachers model and
expression only once and then students are
responsible for working together to try to reproduce
what the teacher modeled.

THE SILENT WAY
 In this method teachers should give
students only what is absolutely
necessary to promote learning and it is
believed that students will naturally
develop their own internal understanding
of the language they are studying as they
work with their classmates.

Communicative Approach
•The origins of this approach are to be
found in the changes in the British
language teaching. The primary goal of
this approach is to enable the students to
communicate using the target language.

Salient Features of Communicative Approach
• The major purpose of communicative approach is to make the learner
effective speakers.
• Language acquisition is desired rather than to learn the language and
interaction is encouraged.
• All the four skills are given due importance to raise the confidence of the
learner.
• A speaker is given the choice not only about what to say, but how to say.
• The students become active because they are engaged to different
activities.
• This approach pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural
aspects of language.
• Noting type of books is used to teach the language. Mostly the learning is
through the games.
• Translation may be used where students need or benefit from it.
• *

The Communicative Method
• It assumes that students are able to acquire written
or oral language when they are motivated and are
not nervous.
• The Communicative Method values teaching
structures and vocabulary but suggests that this
instruction is inadequate for communication if
students only memorize the rules of usage but are
unable to actually use the language. Immediate
application of vocabulary knowledge and grammar
structures to authentic, real-life situations is key to
the Communicative Method.

The Communicative Method
• The needs of the learner are at the center of instruction and the
teacher’s role is that of facilitator helping students to apply what
they’ve learned and to “make the language their own.”
• Dialogues are not pre-arranged and memorized by students, but
rather are initiated by students based on authentic language
scenarios.
• The Communicative Method assumes that the content of
instruction should be meaningful and relevant to the students to
meet the students’ needs and maintain a high level of interest and
student motivation.
• Of all of the methods in use today, the Communicative Method is
the most inclusive – that is to say that it draws from all of the other
methods to tailor activities that are best suited to the learners in
question.

Community Language Learning (CLL)
 Community Language Learning (CLL)
was based on Rogers’ principles of
humanistic psychology.
 Teachers serve as counselors facilitating
learning. They join together with
students to form a learning community
characterized by an accepting
atmosphere.
 The goal is to lower students’ defenses
and encourage open communication.

 In a typical CLL lesson, students sit in a
small circle and the teacher stands
behind one of the students.
 The student makes a statement or asks
a question in his or her native language.
 In a gentle, supportive voice the teacher
translates what the student said to the
new language.
 The student repeats what the teacher
says until he is comfortable enough to
record the new phrase on a tape
recorder.

 The procedure is repeated with all students in the
group until a short conversation has been
recorded.
 Then students listen to their conversation and
the teacher writes it on the board.
 The textbook actually becomes what the
students say in their recorded conversation.
Students copy the written conversation from the
board.
 These sentences are then analyzed for
vocabulary or grammar study.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)
 Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method that
was developed by Asher in 1979 based on research
that suggests that we learn better when our
muscles are involved as well as our minds.
 In TPR students listen and respond to a series of
commands. At the beginning, students respond to
simple command such as “raise your hand”, as they
progress, students respond to complex demands
such as “raise your left hand and scratch your nose
if you are wearing a blue shirt.” Ultimately, students
begin giving commands to their teacher and fellow
students.

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)
Reading and writing come after
students have developed oral
language proficiency.
 For most teachers, TPR is used as
one technique with beginning students
rather than as a complete method to
teach all aspects of language
instruction.

teaching methods

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teaching methods