1. THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE TEACHING.

MODERN

TRENDS IN THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN

LANGUAGE. THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH.

In this topic, I am going to review the history of language teaching

methods, providing a background for discussion of contemporary methods. I am
going to divide the topic into four sections. I will begin with a very brief introduction
dealing with the origins of language teaching and establishing a difference
between the concepts of method and approach. Then I will have a look at
traditional teaching methods. In my third section I will deal with the new teaching
methods. Finally, my last section will be devoted to the communicative approach
to language teaching.

Changes in language teaching methods throughout history have reflected

recognition of changes in the kind of proficiency learners need, such as a move
towards oral proficiency rather than reading comprehension as the goal of
language study. The contemporary attitude is flexible and utilitarian: it is
recognised that there is more then one way to reach the goal of foreign language
competence and that teachers need to be aware of a range of methods, in order
to find the most appropriate to the learners’ needs and to the objectives of the
course. It is often necessary to introduce an eclectic approach to meet the
demands of particular teaching situations.

Nowadays, English is the world’s most widely studied foreign language,

but 500 years ago it was Latin. In the 16th century, however, French, Italian and
English also became important foreign languages. The study of classical Latin
and an analysis of its grammar and rhetoric became the model for foreign
language study from the 17th to the 19th centuries. As “modern” languages began
to enter the curriculum of European schools in the 18th century, they were taught
using the same basic procedures that were used for teaching Latin. This
approach to foreign language teaching became known as the Grammar-
Translation method, where from this point on I am going to analyse the most
important foreign language teaching methods. This means that I am going to

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concentrate on the evolution of language teaching methods throughout the 19th
and 20th centuries.

Before moving into my next section, I would like to establish a difference

between the concepts of method and approach, which will be used throughout
the topic. First of all, a method is a set of principles and procedures for teaching
a language that are derived from a particular theory on the nature of language
and language learning. This theory can be referred to as an approach. So we can
define approach as a set of assumptions, beliefs and theories about the nature
of language and language learning which operate as the theoretical foundations
of a method.

After this introduction, I am going to move to my second section, in which

I will analyse some of the traditional teaching methods.

1. The Grammar-Translation method. This method is derived from the

traditional approach to the teaching of Latin and Greek, which was
particularly influential in the 19th century. It is based on a meticulous
analysis of the written language, in which translation exercises, reading
comprehension and the written imitation of texts play a primary role, as
the aim of learning a foreign language is being able to read its literature.
Learning mainly involves the mastery of grammatical rules and
memorisation of long lists of vocabulary, related to texts chosen for their
prestigious content. Reading and writing are the major focus; little or no
systematic attention is paid to speaking or listening. Accuracy is
emphasised and grammar is taught deductively, that is, by presentation
and study of grammar rules. The student’s native language is the
medium of instruction.

Grammar-Translation dominated European and foreign language

teaching from the 1840s to the 1940s, and somehow it continues to be
used in some parts of the world today, but the majority of teachers
recognise that this approach does little to meet the spoken language
needs and interests of today’s language students. In the mid and late

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 19th century, opposition to the Grammar-Translation method gradually
developed in several European countries, and this Reform movement
laid the foundations for the development of new ways of teaching
languages.

2. The Direct Method: Towards the mid-19th century, increased

opportunities for communication among Europeans created a demand
for oral proficiency in foreign languages that the Grammar-Translation
method did not offer. Educators recognised the need for speaking
proficiency rather than reading comprehension, grammar or literary
appreciation as the goal for foreign language programmes. New
approaches to language teaching were developed by individual
language teaching specialists and together they became known as the
Reform movement.

In general the reformers believed that the spoken language is primary,

learners should hear the language first, grammar should be taught
inductively and translation should be avoided. These ideas led to the
development of what came to be known as the Direct Method. Another
important aspect in the development of this method was the attempts to
make second language learning more like first language learning.

The Direct Method is based on the active involvement of the learner in

speaking and listening to the foreign language in realistic everyday
situations. No use is made of the learners’ mother tongue. A great deal
of emphasis is placed on good pronunciation. Formal grammatical rules
and terminology are avoided. Grammar is taught inductively through
experience in the language.

The Direct method was quite successful in private language schools, but
it was difficult to implement in public secondary school education, as it
overemphasised and distorted the similarities between natural first
language learning and classroom foreign language learning and failed to
consider the practical realities of the classroom. Other criticisms to the

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 Direct Method were that translation, which they excluded completely, can
play a useful role in language teaching; the way vocabulary was taught
was often inefficient and slow, and as far as grammar is concerned, the
inductive method of learning can be extremely slow, uncertain and
impractical. Therefore, by the 1920s, use of the Direct Method in non-
commercial schools in Europe had declined. The Direct Method needed
some modification to make it suitable for language teaching in school
and this is what the exponents for the Oral or Audio-Lingual methods did,
trying to avoid the extremes of the Direct Method, but keeping the
emphasis on the oral approach to language learning.
3. The Audio-Lingual Method: This methodology emphasises the
teaching of oral skills (listening and speaking) before reading and writing.
The emphasis is on everyday spoken conversation, with particular
attention being paid to natural pronunciation. This reform was supported
in part by a theory of psychology known as “behaviourism” developed by
B.I. Skinner. Language is seen as a process of habit formation: structural
patterns in dialogues about everyday situations are imitated and drilled
until the learner’s responses become automatic. Students are not
necessarily expected to understand grammar and grammar rules.
Presumably the student should, at some point, arrive at the stage at
which the structures and phonological system have been established as
habits and can focus on the message, allowing real communication in
the target language.

Audiolingual practices have, in recent years, come under strong criticism

from theoretical linguists and psychologists and, most importantly, from
teachers and students who found the specific practices extremely boring.
One of the first problems brought by this method was the insistence on
the development of oral skills with no use of printed materials. Another
problem was the fact that habit formation simply didn’t happen at such a
fast rate. Real habits (subconscious language acquisition) take much
longer to establish than it is possible with any series of drills. Moreover,
inductive learning is not suited to all students. The reaction to this
problem was to return to deductive learning. Still another criticism to the

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 Audio-Lingual method was that students simply repeated the drills
without understanding what they were saying, focusing neither on the
meaning of the sentence nor on the new rules they contained. But the
main criticism was that even if the message or rule involved is
understood and paid attention to, such drills are not real communication
since they transmit no real message.

4. The Basic English Method: Several years before the Second World
War, a different method was developed by C.K. Ogden and I.A.
Richards. They found that it was possible to classify 850 basic words in
English which occur most frequently. This is what is known as basic
English, and it would include common verbs, general nouns, certain
adjectives and operational words such as prepositions. Basic English
works mainly through paraphrases, for example “small tree” for “bush”.

English speakers claim that Basic English is confusing, restrictive and

inaccurate. Besides, extra sets of words are needed for specific fields so
the lists of vocabulary included wouldn’t be “basic” anymore. On the
other hand, Romance language speakers find it hard to learn phrasal
verbs like “go in” instead of “enter” which would be closer to their own
speech pattern.

After having a look at traditional methods, I will deal with new teaching
methods. Since the 1960s, several fresh approaches to foreign language learning
have been devised, aiming to provide a radical alternative to traditional methods.
Advances in the fields of psychology, anthropology and the social sciences
influenced on the way in which foreign languages were taught. A greater
understanding of how the mind works, of the importance of communication
between humans and of the development of the personality led to various
attempts to establish a humanistic approach in the teaching/learning process. If
foreign language learning can be made more natural, and the learner made more
receptive to the task, it is argued, more efficient learning will result. Examples of
methods which are based on these ideals or incorporate these techniques are:

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 a) Suggestopedia: This is an approach based on the science of suggestion.
Devised by a Bulgarian psychiatrist, it has mainly been applied in the field
of adult foreign language teaching. This humanistic teaching method tries
to make the learning as relaxed and comfortable as possible (ex.
armchairs, soft music, pleasant colours, etc) and to make maximum use
of the brain’s capacity to combine the conscious and the unconscious for
learning. This method tries to develop a positive attitude towards learning.

EXPLANATION OF PPP: instead of THE SILENT WAY

b) The Silent Way: A method of language teaching in which the teacher remains
as silent as possible and elicits responses from the learners by using charts, rods
(coloured blocks of wood) and gestures. This method aims to provide an
environment which keeps the amount of teaching to a minimum and encourages
learners to develop their own ways of using the language elements introduced.
The aim is to help the learners to become self-reliant to select their own
sentences and be in control of them, with good intonation and rhythm. The
teacher does not repeat the material or provide sentences for students to imitate,
and no use is made of the learner’s language.

c) Community language learning: A method of language learning which relies

upon the learners to provide their own syllabus. The main aim is to create strong
personal links between the teacher/counsellor and the learners, and thus,
eliminate whatever is found threatening in the foreign language learning situation.
There is no prepared material. The learners form a circle and start a conversation
in the target language. The group conversation is recorded and transcribed and
is later analysed by the learners and the teacher. This analysis then provides the
basis for the teaching of particular language points.

All these methods are based on “learner-centred approaches”, rather than

on a fixed syllabus and the dictation of the teacher. Such approaches would
ideally involve the learners in decisions about what and how they learn and would

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require the teacher to be an organiser and guider rather that an instructor.
However, none of these methods can be said to have achieved great success.

Many complex factors have contributed in recent years to what can fairly be
called the “communicative revolution” in the teaching/learning of foreign
languages. In my last section I am going to deal with the communicative approach
to language teaching. A concern has developed to make foreign language
teaching “communicative”. In communicative approaches, the emphasis tends to
be on the use of language itself. It is important to focus on the learner’s knowledge
of the functions of language, and on their ability to select appropriate kinds of
language for use in specific situations. These are some of the characteristics of
the communicative approach:

 Learner-centred teaching: the learners take on more active roles in the

classroom and the teacher plays the part of “facilitator” or “resource person”.
Pair or group work, role play and games are sorts of activities which help
reduce the dominant role of the teacher in the class. Teachers have to cater
for the specific needs of the group as a whole, but at the same time, making
sure that individual aspirations are given due attention. On the other hand,
they must pay attention to meaning and form simultaneously.
 More emphasis is being put on the correlation of linguistics forms to
situational settings and the cultural environment in general. Notional or
functional syllabuses are often used. They provide a major alternative to the
emphasis of formal language teaching. Here the content of a course is
organised in terms of the meaning that learners require in order to
communicate in particular functional contexts. Major communicative notions
include the linguistic expression of time, duration, frequency, sequence,
quantity, location and motion. Major communicative functions include
evaluations, persuasion, emotional expression and the establishing of social
relations.
 More emphasis is put on the use of language than on the analysis of its
structure; on the internalization of rules which generate sentences than on
the mechanical memorization of endless and often meaningless lists of
phrases and structures.

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 The achievement of spontaneous communication and fluency becomes the
main objective, even at the expense of grammatical correctness and
accuracy. Errors and mistakes are considered as a normal part of the
learning process.
 The traditional presentation of language, that is, catalogues of words,
phrases and sentences, is rejected in favour of the introduction of larger
chunks of language. In other words, both teachers and learners are
encouraged to use genuine language in meaningful situations, which implies
operating with units of meaning above the phrase or sentence level.
 Emphasis is often given to oral comprehension and production in contrast
to the often exclusive attention to written skills found in more traditional
methods.
 The need for increased attention to the teaching of lexis to avoid the frequent
phenomenon of a structurally competent but communicatively incompetent
student. E.g. Have you fire = Are you a match’s owner?

The ability to manipulate the structures of a language correctly is only a part

of what it is involved in learning a language. There is “something else”, the
ability to be appropriate, to know the right thing to say at the right time. In
Hyme’s words,”there are rules of use without which the rules of grammar
would be useless”.
 Methodology: Classroom practice should correspond as closely as possible
to real life use of language. It is important to make sure that there are
communication gaps in situations in which the learners are asked to
perform, that is to say, the disparity in knowledge and experience that exists
between people involved in communication with each other. Much of the
interaction between the teacher and the learner in the classroom is
extremely artificial because there is no “communication gap” between the
participants.
 Authentic material: There is nothing wrong in itself with creating special texts
for specific purposes. Scripted material is useful for presenting specific
language items economically and effectively. However, authentic material
gives students a taste of “real” language” in use, and provides them with
valid linguistic data for their unconscious acquisition processes to work on.

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 Communicative methods have attracted universal interest and have
influenced the practice of modern foreign language teaching. However, there has
also been a critical reaction and both linguists and teachers are still trying to find
the ideal methodology in foreign language teaching and learning.

To sum up, I would like to say that the theories of learning and teaching
languages I have mentioned here must lead us to the conclusion that a sensible
methodological approach to the teaching of languages should take into account
both input practice and communicative output. While students need a lot of input,
and while there must be an emphasis on communicative activities which improve
the students’ ability to communicate, there is also place for controlled
presentation of input and semi-controlled practice. What is required in the
classroom is a balanced approach of input and output. This balance is the
essential ingredient of the methodology, both for pedagogical reasons and for our
student’s continuing interests in foreign language learning.