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Direct Method
Direct Method
Today, one of the most important tasks of school is to prepare children for
their future life, therefore parents, teachers and authorities should not
forget how important it is to learn at least one foreign language.
Over the years, more and more approaches and methods in foreign
language teaching were developed. In the nineteenth century the
Grammar Translation Method was the most popular approach in foreign
language learning. Since the main purpose of learning a second language
at that time was being able to read foreign books, students were taught
through translating fragments of books from the original to their native
language. Then, years later, the reasons for learning a foreign language
had changed and the ability to speak freely became new teaching goal.
The Grammar Translation Method was replaced by The Direct Method. As a
result, the new approach became more student-cantered and highlighted
the importance of the learners speaking and listening skills. The
educational method itself was based on few rules and principles.
First of all, the language instruction was provided only in the target
language. As far as teaching foreign languages to young learners is
concerned, this principle seems reasonable. Young students are very
sensitive to the environment which surrounds them, they like to make
noises and play with objects. Childhood is the unique time to start building
and developing of language skills, because in this period of life children
are very tolerant to the unknown. They are clever, eager and motivated to
experiment, discover and learn new things or languages even if they dont
understand everything.
Thirdly, the grammar was taught inductively. In the same time the
pronunciation and grammar correctness were emphasised. On the one
hand this principle fulfils the requirements of early language classroom,
because during well-organized lessons young students may
unconsciously learn a lot of language chunks or patterns, which later on
may set the base for proper grammar learning. On the other hand teacher
who corrects every childrens mistake may make the foreign language
learning process difficult and demotivating.