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Grammar Translation Method
In grammar-translation classes, students learn grammatical rules and then apply those rules by translating sentences between the target language and the native language. Advanced students may be required to translate whole texts word-for-word. The method has two main goals: to enable students to read and translate literature written in the target language, and to further students’ general intellectual development. -
Approach
The traditional approach supports an instrumental and mechanistic conception of the communicative process, linked rather to the idea of information transmission. -
Characteristics
-Classes are taught in the mother tongue
-Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words.
-Little or no attention is given to pronunciation.
-Reading of difficult texts is begun early.
-Long, elaborate explanations of the intrincacies of grammar are given. -
Objective
The main objective is to be able to read literature in the foreign language. For that reason, students need to learn the grammar rules and vocabulary of that foreign language. -
Activities
-Translation of a literary passage
-Comprehensive reading
-Synonyms and antonyms:
-Cognados -
Teacher role
The teacher is the authority in the classroom and almost all interaction is that of the teacher towards his students. -
Student Role
Students do what the teacher says so that they learn what the teacher knows. There is very little interaction between the students themselves. -
Process
-The instructions are provided by the teacher either in their first language and then translated into the target language.
-The communication skill is not in a progressive way because its objective is writing.
-Grammar is taught ductively. The vocabulary taught is learned by rote. -
Technique
-Memorization: memorize lists of words with their equivalent in the mother tongue.
-Write: the teacher orders to write about a topic in the target language.
-Translation of a text: students translate a written text into their mother tongue or vice versa. -
Direct Method
The direct method focuses on full immersion in the classroom environment where not one word of the students’ native language is spoken. The focus is not on grammar but instead on learning through listening and speaking. -
Approach
It's Natural Approach. Within this approach are those methods that are based on the natural principles of children's learning. -
Characteristics
Translation is completely banished from any classroom activity. Classroom activities are carried out ONLY in the target language.
Oral teaching comes before any other kind of reading and writing activities.
Grammar is taught inductively.
Use of realia to teach concrete vocabulary. Abstract vocabulary is taught through association if ideas.
Emphasis is put on correct pronunciation and grammar.
Teaching through modeling and practice. -
Activities
-Vocabulary is taught through objects, mimicry, and other visual and material elements.
-The work is developed mainly through questions and answers from the teacher to the students and, later, among the students themselves; for example:
The kitchen: Describe your preferences for the foods and types of cuisine in your life using a question guide.
Simon says: a game by which you can learn new words and understand them with the help of context. -
Objective
Build a direct path in the world of the target language by making a relationship between experience and language, word and idea, thought and expression, rule and performance; that students learn to communicate in the target language. -
Teacher role
You have the responsibility to organize and guide the class, but not in an authoritative way. Provides contextualized and regulated input. Then, gradually, the student is involved in the process of oral comprehension and production and written production. Correct the mistakes. -
Student Role
The student acts as an active and participatory receiver, capable of communicating in everyday situations. For this reason, the student needs to manage a repertoire of structures and a minimum vocabulary to meet the objective. It is considered very important that the person has high listening comprehension competence and good pronunciation, which allow them to communicate satisfactorily. -
Process
-Instructions are given exclusively in the second language and oral communication skills are taught progressively, through the exchange of questions and answers between the teacher and the students.
-Every day they are taught a certain number of phrases and vocabulary.
-The vocabulary is taught through demonstrations, objects and photographs, the abstract vocabulary is learned through the association of ideas. -
Technique
Reading aloud,
Question answer exercises,
Self-correction,
Conversation practice,
Fill-in-the-blank exercises,
Dictation
and Paragraph writing. -
Audiolingual Method
The Audiolingual Approach to language teaching has a lot of similarities with the Direct Method. Both were considered as a reaction against the shortcomings of the Grammar Translation method, both reject the use of the mother tongue and both stress that speaking and listening competences preceded reading and writing competences. But there are also some differences. The direct method highlighted the teaching of vocabulary while the audiolingual approach focus on grammar drills -
Approach
It's structural approach and this establishes that language is divided into several components.
These components interact with each other and form the rules of language -
Characteristics
-Language learning is habit-formation,
mistakes are bad and should be avoided, as they are considered bad habits.
-Language skills are learned more effectively if they are presented orally first, then in written form.
-Analogy is a better foundation for language learning than analysis,
the meanings of words can be learned only in a linguistic and cultural context. -
Objective
Include training in listening comprehension through phonetic correction and recognition of speech symbols as graphic signs on a printed page in such a way as to develop the ability to reproduce these symbols in writing. -
Activities
-The dialogues and repetition exercises form the basis of the audio linguistic practices in the classroom.
-A lexical program of basic vocabulary items is specified in advance. -
Teacher role
It is a method controlled by the teacher, therefore, the teacher models the target language, controls the direction and pace of learning, and checks and corrects the performance of the students. The teacher must keep the students' attention by varying the exercises and tasks, and must also choose the most appropriate situations to practice the structures. The learning of the language seems to be produced by the verbal intention between the teacher and the students. -
Student Role
The student is considered as an organism that can be directed through appropriate training techniques to produce correct answers. Teaching focuses on the external manifestation of learning rather than internal processes. -
Process
-The dialogues and repetition exercises are the basis in the classroom. After reading a dialogue, the teacher selects some grammatical points on which the different types of exercises are carried out.
A typical class consists of:
-Students listen to a dialogue and repeat the sentences.
-The dialogue can be adapted to the interests of the students by changing some sentences.
-Students open the textbook and do vocabulary or writing exercises too. -
Technique
-Memorization of dialogues
-Drills (backward repeat, repeat, string, word substitution, question / answer)
-Complete conversations. -
Communicative method
The communicative method is based on the idea that learning language successfully comes through having to communicate real meaning. When learners are involved in real communication, their natural strategies for language acquisition will be used, and this will allow them to learn to use the language. -
Approach
It's communicative approach and this approach to language teaching aims to equip the student for a real communication in the foreign language, both orally and in writing. For it uses real materials, texts and audios. -
Characteristics
-It emphasizes communication in the foreign language through interaction.
-Introduce real texts in the learning situation.
-Gives students opportunities to think about the learning process and not just about the language
-It gives importance to the personal experiences of students as elements that contribute to classroom learning.
-It tries to relate the language learned in the classroom with activities carried out outside of it. -
Objective
Help students to use the language of learning in a wide variety of contexts and places importance on learning the functions of the language. -
Activities
-Simulation games
-Interviews
-Exchange of information distributed among students
-Language exchange
-Surveys
-Work in pairs
-Learn by teaching -
Teacher role
It is the facilitator of communication in the classroom, it is considered as a resource, organizer, motivator, advisor, a guide and a researcher. -
Student Role
Practice communication and take advantage of context to be able to communicate. -
Process
-It places emphasis on communication in the foreign language through the interaction of our students.
-Introducing real texts in the learning situation therefore this offers students opportunities to think about the learning process and not only about the language.
-Give importance to the personal experiences of students as elements that contribute to their learning.
-Try to relate the language learned in the classroom with activities carried out outside of it. -
Technique
-Dialogue or conversations
-Negotiation of meaning
-Problem resolution -
Total Physical Response
It suggests that when we learn a language, we do it through a code-breaking process. This process allows a development of understanding before production. According to this method the teacher presents the vocabulary and grammar
within a context. Students respond physically to verbal commands. -
Approach
It's Humanistic Approach and this includes methods in which students are the axis around which the entire teaching-learning process revolves. This approach takes into account the capacities, needs, interests, expectations and motivations of the students in order to achieve their involvement and encourage the development of their autonomy. -
Characteristics
It is based upon the way that children learn their mother tongue. Parents have 'language-body conversations' with their children, the parent instructs and the child physically responds to this. Eventually when it has decoded enough, the child reproduces the language quite spontaneously. TPR attempts to mirror this effect in the language classroom. -
Objective
Teaching oral proficiency at a beginning level.
Using comprehension as a means to speaking.
Using action-based drills in the imperative form. -
Activities
The exercises with imperatives are the most important activity in the class and are carried out in order to obtain physical actions from the students. Other activities are improvisations (everyday situations such as the restaurant, the supermarket, etc.) and the presentation of slides (as visual support for the teacher's narration), followed by orders and questions to the students. -
Teacher role
It mainly plays an active role as it directs the actions carried out by its students. The teacher is the one who decides the content, presents the models, selects the support materials and directs the interactions. Furthermore, it is responsible for providing the best possible exposure to the language so that language learners can assimilate the basic rules and develop speaking skills according to their own natural rhythm, correcting little mistakes at first. -
Student Role
Students have little influence on the content of learning, as their basic roles are to listen carefully and respond physically to the teacher's commands. -
Process
The first skills to practice are receptive skills. Furthermore, the student must accept in advance that he will go through a learning stage in which he will not speak, in which he will only actively listen. The student will not produce any oral or written message.
Between the initial receptive stage and the final active stage, there is an intermediate moment in which the student can respond physically to show understanding of a message. -
Technique
Some of the activities carried out in this method are the following:
-Change of roles: students give orders to the teacher and their classmates to carry out actions. Students should not be encouraged to speak until they are the ones to decide.
-Sequence of actions: sometimes, it is not necessary to give a single order, but several.
-Songs: A very typical song, and that everyone who has studied English (or taught) knows is that of “If you are happy and you know it”. -
Suggestopedia
The name combines the terms "suggestion" and "pedagogy", the main idea being that accelerated learning can take place when accompanied by de-suggestion of psychological barriers and positive suggestion. To this end lessons take place against a background of soothing music in an emotionally comforting environment, with the teacher actively planting and unplanting thoughts in and from the learners' minds. -
Approach
It's Humanistic Approach and this includes methods in which students are the axis around which the entire teaching-learning process revolves. This approach takes into account the capacities, needs, interests, expectations and motivations of the students in order to achieve their involvement and encourage the development of their autonomy. -
Characteristics
Target language/mother tongue
Teacher-centred
Bright, cheerful classrooms with comfortable chairs
Soothing background music
Positive suggestion and negative "de-suggestion" by teacher
New identities for learners with TL names and new occupations
Vocabulary and grammar notes
Reading of dialogues by teacher, rhythm and intonation matched to Music reading of dialogues by learners just before sleeping and on rising (homework)
Classroom activities based on dialogues -
Objective
The main objective of teaching is not memorization, but understanding and creative problem solving, however, memorization of vocabulary in pairs is an important goal of this method. -
Activities
-Imitation
-Questions and answers
-Role Play
-Listening activities -
Teacher role
The teacher must create situations in which students are most suggestible and then present the linguistic material in the manner most likely to encourage reception and retention by students. You should also maintain modest enthusiasm, however the teacher should also have skills in acting, singing, and post-therapeutic technique. -
Student Role
Students volunteer for the activities to be carried out. They must also try to figure out, manipulate or study the material presented, but must maintain the pseudo-passive state. -
Process
-Oral review of previously learned material
-New material is presented and discussed
-Concert session (It's the heart of this method) -
Technique
-Classroom setup: A physical environment is created so that it does not feel like a classroom.
-Peripheral learning: Students can absorb information effortlessly when it is perceived as part of the environment.
-Visualization: Students are asked to close their eyes and visualize scenes and events, to help them relax, provide positive suggestions and encourage their creativity.
-Role Play: Students temporarily pretend that they are someone else and play a role using the target language. -
Natural Method
The natural method is based on the idea of enabling naturalistic language acquisition in the language classroom. -
Approach
It's Natural Approach. Within this approach are those methods that are based on the natural principles of children's learning. -
Characteristics
The reproduction stage is the development of listening comprehension skills.
The early production stage is usually marked with errors as the student struggles with the language. The teacher focuses on meaning.
The last stage is one of extending production into longer stretches of discourse involving more complex games, role plays, open-ended dialogues, etc. -
Objective
The goal of the Natural Method is to create communicative competence rather than grammar correctness. At the beginning of the lesson, the emphasis is on listening. -
Activities
Among the most notable activities are: songs, games and stories due to their attraction and try to enhance their oral skills; they are repeated with some frequency and what has been previously learned is reviewed. -
Teacher role
The Natural Method demands a central role from the teacher, much greater than in other communication methods. In your classes, you must generate a constant flow of linguistic information and provide a wide variety of extra-linguistic supports that facilitate interpretation; is responsible for selecting and organizing activities that are varied and adapted to the contents and contexts, choosing for this the most appropriate material to the needs and interests of the students. -
Student Role
Within this method it is commented that the responsibility of the students consists mainly of: providing information about their needs and objectives so that the acquisition activities are adapted to them; learn and use conversation control techniques to regulate input; decide when to start producing in the target language; agree with the teacher the amount of time that will be devoted to the different learning activities. -
Process
Create an interesting and relaxed environment, which guarantees a low affective filter for learning. The activities should last approximately 20 minutes. The practice of the language must be constant in infants, so that their vocabulary increases every day and can express themselves in an appropriate way with the English language. -
Technique
-Mime
-Gestures
-Writing
-Repetition oral activities
-Reading
