A “Methodical” History of
Language Teaching
1. Approach, Method and Technique
In
1963 Edward Anthony gave us a concept is method was the second of three
elements are approach, method, and technique. According to Anthony the approach
is a set assumpstions dealing with the nature of language, learning, and
teaching. A few decades later (1982, 1986) Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers
proposed a concept of “method’ Anthony’s approach, method, and technique
renamed (approach, design, and procedure) with a superordinate term to describe
this three process, now called “Method”.
According to Richard and Rodgers,
Method is an umrella term or the specification and interrelation of the theory
and practice. An approach defines assumptions, beliefs, and theories about the
nature of language learning. Meanwhile, procedures are the techniques and
practices that are derived from one’s approach and design. Richards and Rodgers
made two principal contributions to our understanding of the concept of method:
1. They specified the necessary elements of
language-teaching designs that had. They described six important features of
deigns: objetives, syllabus, activities, student roles, teacher roles, and the
role of instructional materials.
2. We can definable, Methods are the
essential building bloks of methodhology and helping us to think in terms of an
approach that undergirds our language designs (curriculum), which are realized
by various procedures (techniques).
Methodology: Pedagogical practices
in general (including theoretical under pinnings and related research). Whatever considerations
are involved in "how to teach methodological.
Approach: Theoretically
well-informed positions and beliefs
about the nature of language, the nature of language learning, and the
applicability of both to pedagogical settings.
Method: A generalized set of
classroom specifications for accomplishing linguistic objectives. Methods tend
to be concerned primarily with teacher and student roles and behavior and secondarily with
such features as linguistic and subject-matter objectives, sequencing, and materials.
Curriculum/syllabus: Designs for
carrying out a particular language program. Features include a
primary concern with the specification of linguistic and subject-matter
objectives, sequencing, and materials to meet the needs of a designated group
of learners in a defined context.
Technique (also commonly referred
to by other terms):" Any of a wide varicty
of exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing
lesson objectives.
3. Changing Winds and Shifting Sands
A glance through the past
century or so of language teaching will give
an interesting picture of how varied the interpretations have been of the best
way to teach a foreign language. Teaching methods, as "approaches in
action, are of course the practical application of theoretical findings and positions.
Albert
Marckwardt (1972: 5) saw these
"changing winds and shifting sands" as a cyclical pattern in
which a new method emerged about every quarter of a century. Each new method broke
from the old but took with it some of the positive aspects of the previous
practices.
A
good example of this cyclical nature of methods is found in the
"revolutionary" Audiolingual
Method (ALM) (a description follows) of the mid-twentieth century. The ALM borrowed tenets from its predecessor
the Direct
Method by almost half a century while breaking away entirely from the Grammar Translation
Method. Within a short time, however, ALM critics were advocating more
attention to thinking, to cognition, and to rule learning, which to some
smacked of a return to Grammar translation.
2.
The
Grammar Translation Method
The
grammar translation method is a very classic language learning methodology in
the world. According to Brown (2001: 18) This method emphasizes learning
grammar (structure of language), memorizing vocabulary, translating texts, and
writing exercises. Teachers who apply this methodology tend to teach grammar
explicitly without explaining any context in which such grammar should be used.
The principal characteristics of the grammar-translation method were these:
1. Grammar translation is a way of studying a language that
approaches the language
first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application
of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and texts into and out
of, the target language. Th e first language is maintained as the reference
system in the acquisition of the second
language" (Stern 1983: 455) .
2. Reading and writing are
major focus; little or no systematic attention is paid to speaking or
listening.
3.
Vocabulary
selection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught
through bilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization. In a typical
Grammar-Translation text, the grammar rules are presented and illustrated, a
list of vocabulary items are presented with their translation equivalents, and
translation exercises are prescribed.
4.
The
sentence is the basic unit of teaching and language practice. sentence was an
attempt to make language learning easier (see Howatt 1984: 131).
5.
Accuracy
is emphasized, because of "the high priority attached to meticulous
standards of accuracy which, as well as having an intrinsic moral value, was a
prerequisite for passing the increasing number of formal written examinations
that grew up during the century" (Howatt 1984: 132).
6.
Grammar
is taught deductively - that is, by presentation and study of grammar rules,
which are then practiced through translation exercises.
7.
The
student's native language is the medium o f instruction.
Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979:3) listed the major characteristics of grammar translation:
1. Classes are taught in the mother tougue,
with little active uses of the target language .
2. Much vocabulary is tought in the form of
lists of isolated words.
3. Long, claborate explanations of the
intricacies of grammar are given.
4. Grammar provides the rules for putting
words together, andintruction often focuses on the form and inflectionof words.
5. Reading of difficult classical texts is
begun early.
6. Little attention is paid to the content
of texts, which are treated as exercisesin grammatical analysis.
7. Often the onlydrills are execises in
translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the target
language intothe mother tongue.
8. Little or no attention is given to
pronunciation.
3. Gouin
And The Series Method
The Gouin's method
of sequencing, namely, that learning a second language must be more like the
first language, oral interactions, spontaneous use of language, no translation
between the first and second languages - and little or no analysis of grammar
rules. Language teaching innovations in the
nineteenth century toward the mid-nineteenth century several factors
contributed to a questioning and rejection of the Grammar-Translation Method.
In Germany, England, France, and other parts of Europe, new approaches to
language teaching were developed by individual language teaching specialists,
each with a specific method for reforming the teaching of modern languages. The
Frenchman F. Gouin (1831-1896) is perhaps the best known of these
mid-nineteenth century reformers.Gouin developed an approach to teaching a
foreign language based on his observations of children's use language.
4.
The Direct Method
According to Brown Learning a second or foreign language must
be determined as natural as possible like the first language (Brown. Since
1920s applied the direct method . The goal of trying to teach conversation
skills was considered impractical in view of restricted time available for
foreign language teaching in schools. The experience with uses the technique of
the direct Method provide will helping student:
a.
Reading aloud : Student take turn to reading section passage
and at the end the teacher uses the gesture
b.
Question and answer
exercise: Student question and answer by the teacher, give a feedback each
other to conducted only in target language
c.
Getting student to self-correct: The teacher in the class has
the student self correct by asking them to make a choice between what they said
an alternative supplied
d.
Conversation practice:
Student have to understand to able answer correctly
e.
Fill in the blank
exercise: Student need to fill in the blink for practice earlier parts of the
learn
f.
Dictaqtion: The teacher read passage three times. First the
teacher read in the normal speed while student lesson. Second, the teacher read
phrase by phrase and passing long enough to allow student write what they
heard. The last is the teacher read in the normal speed again while student
check their work.
g.
Map drawing: The class included the example of technique used
to give student listen comprehension practice
h.
Paragraph writing: The teacher ask the student to write
paragraph in their own word. This could have done this from memory and they
could have uses the reading lesson as a model.
5.
The Audio-Lingual Method
ALM
is a teaching method that emphasizes the teaching of foreign languages
listening and speaking before reading and writing. Use dialogue as the main
form of presentation and training technique, mlother tongue (he first language
acquired) in the classroom. According to Prator and Celce-Murcia (1979), The
characteristics of the ALM may be summed up in the following list (adapted from
Prator & Celce-Murcia 1979):
a. New material is presented in dialogue
form.
b. There is dependence on mimicry,
memorization of set phrases, and over-learning.
c. Structures are sequenced by means of
contrastive analysis and taught one at a time.
d. Structural pattern are taught using
repetitive drills.
e. There is little or no grammatical
explanation. Grammar is taught by inductive analogy rather than by deductive
explanation.
f. Vocabulary is strictly limited and
learned in context.
g. There is much use of tapes, language
labs, and visual aids.
h. Great importance is attached to
pronunciation.
i.
Very
little use of the mother tongue by teachers is permitted.
j.
Successful
responses are immediately reinforced.
k. There is a great effort to get students
to produce error-free utterance.
l.
There
is a tendency to manipulate language and disregard content.
6. Cognitive Code Learning
Teaching
Cognitive Codes is not so much practiced. This method is an approach method
that emphasizes the awareness of the rules and applications of students to
learn a second language. This method is a reaction to the behavioristic
rigorous practice of the ALM method, and ironically, back to several practices,
As teachers and subject matter developers see that the incessant material with
potentially memorization does not make students adept at communicating, new
touches are needed, and cognitive teaching codes emerge just to provide such
touches. Unfortunately, innovation in rules, paradigms, complexities, and
exclusions from language has weakened the mental reserves of students'
languages. A profession requires some spice and enthusiasm, and an innovative mind
in the spirit that increased for the challenges of the 1970s.
7. Designer
Methods Of The 1970s
a.
Community Language Learning
According to Brown this method
shows language as a system for meaning; main function - interaction and
communication. The teacher can provide activities through this method. In
general, they will provide activities that repeat the ability of students to
communicate; discussion, problem solving and so on. This method can be applied
even to early class students of language learners. These materials will
probably be used for future student work situations. So that teachers in this
case also support their students to obtain not only as objects in their lives,
but also their future careers.
b. Suggestopedia
This method was taken from a Bulgarian
psychologist Goerge Lozanov (1979). According to him, that in the human brain
can process large amounts of large material if given to the correct conditions
for learning, when a person is relaxed. According to Lozanov, a person is able
to learn a lot from what they get in a relaxed state. Music is the center of
this method.
c. The Silent Way
In this method Richard and Rodger
conclude the theory of learning that:
a) Learning
is facilitated if students find or create rather than remember and repeat what
is learned.
b) Learning is facilitated by friends (mediation)
as physical objects.
c) Learning
is facilitated by problem solving including the material being studied
d.
Total Physical Responses
James Asher (1977), a developer of this TPR method, combines many other views
in its rationale. Asher notes that children in learning their first language,
appear to do a lot of listening before they speak, and that their hearing will
be followed by physical responses (reaching, touching, moving, seeing and so
on). He also gave some attention to right brain learning
e.
the Natural Approach
The three stages of the Natural Approach are:
·
The preproduction stage is the
development os listening comprehension skills.
·
The early production stage is
usually marked with errors as the student struggles with the language.
·
The last stage is one of extending
production into longer stretches of discourse involving more complete games,
role plays, discussions and so forth. The objective in this is to promote
fluency
8.
Notional Functional-Syllabuses (NFS)
Beginning with the work of the
European Council, and used in Britain in 1970, attention to functions as an
element of organizing the English curriculum, the structure of grammar
functions as an organizer, focusing on the pragmatic goals in which we place language,
It is not a method but close to what they are call na "approach"
The following functions are found
in the first few lessons of the beginner's reading book that were developed:
· Introduce
yourself and others
· Exchange
someone's information
· Asking
anyone to spell someone's name
· The
giving order
· Apologize
and thank you.
· Identification
and illustration of a person
· Request
information
References
Brown, H Douglas. 2007. Teaching By Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy,
Third Edition. America :Pearson Education
Wilkins, D.A.1976.Notional
Sylabuses.London:Oxford University Press
Brown,H
Douglas.2000.Teaching by Principles An
Interractive Approach to Language Pedagogy Second Edition.California
Richards, C Jack and Theodore S.Rodgers.1986.Approaches and Methods in Languange
Teaching.America:Cambridge University Press
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