Teaching Methods محاضرة الدكتور جورج الاولى

Teaching Methods

Certain methods are widely recognized because of their influential role in

the history of ideas surrounding this subject.

The Grammar Translation Method

This method drives from the traditional approach to the teaching of Latin

and Greek, Which was particularly influential in the 19th century. It is

based on the meticulous analysis of the written language, in which

translation exercises, reading comprehension, and the written imitation of

texts play a primary role. Learning mainly involves the mastery of

grammatical rules and memorization of long lists of literary vocabulary,

related to texts which are chosen more for their prestigious content than for

their interest or level of linguistic difficulty. There is little emphasis laid

on the activities of listening or speaking. The vast majority of teachers

now recognize that the approach does little to meet the spoken language

needs and interests of to day's language students.

The Direct Method:

This approach, also known as oral or natural method, is based on the active

involvement of the learner in speaking and listening to the foreign

language in realistic every day situations. No use is made of the learner's

mother tongue; learners are encouraged to think in the foreign language,

and not to translate into or out of it. A great deal of emphasis is placed on

good pronunciation, often introducing students to phonetic transcription

before they use the standard orthography. Formal grammatical rules and

terminology are avoided.

The direct method continues to attract interest and enthusiasm, but it is not

an easy approach to use in schoo1. In the artificial environment of the

c1assroom, it is difficult to generate natural learning situations and to

provide everyone with different practice. Teachers often permit some

degree of mother-tongue explanation and grammatical statement to avoid

learners developing inaccurate fluency ('School Pidgin').

The Audio-lingual Method

It is also known as the aural-oral method, this approach derives from the

intensive training in spoken languages given to American military

personnel during the Second world war. It resulted in a high degree of

listening and speaking skill which was achieved in a relatively short time-

span. The emphasis is on everyday spoken conversation, with particular

attention being paid to natural pronunciation. Language is seen as a

process of habit formation: structural patterns in dialogues about everyday

situations are imitated and drilled until the leaner's responses become

automatic. There is a special focus on areas of structural contrast between

LI and L2. Language work is first heard, then practiced orally, before being seen and used in written form.

The approach can instill considerable conversational fluency in a learner,

and was widely used in the 1950s and 1960s. Its reliance on drills and

habit-formation makes it less popular today, especially with learners who

wish for a wider range of linguistic experience, and who feel the need for

more creative work in speech production.
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