Unit 1: Introduction

Pre-Chapter Questions

These questions are designed to stimulate your thinking and introduce you to the Unit
material. Do not submit answers as they are not part of your assessment.  The thinking
process will get you ready for the following:

1. How do you think children learn language? Do you think we are born with something that
helps us learn language?

2. With what grammar-based approaches to second or foreign language teaching are you
already familiar?

3. What do you think an effective communicative approach might be? How might it be
different from the other approaches with which you are familiar?

4. Grammar has traditionally been the focus of second and foreign language teaching for
hundreds of years, so it is no surprise that today many language teachers still believe that
grammar should take centre stage in language programs. What do you think?

Grammar Based Approaches

Many language teachers have felt that language teaching is most successful through
stressing grammar as the content and by exposing the student to language that
concentrates on one aspect of the grammar system at a time – present tense before past
tense, comparatives before superlatives, first-person singular before third-person singular,
and so on. Let’s have a look at several of these approaches.

1. Grammar-Translation

Grammar-translation was the most popular method until several decades ago and versions
of it still exist in some countries around the world. Its goal was to produce students who
could read and write in the target language by teaching them rules and applications.

A typical grammar-translation lesson began with a reading to be translated into the first
language followed by the rule it illustrated. New words would be presented in a list along
with definitions in the first language. These new words would be included in the reading,
which was usually far above the level of the students’ proficiency. Topics for readings may
have included a trip to the library, an historical sketch of an area, a shopping expedition, a
trip by train, a vacation, and the like. Lessons were grammatically sequenced and students
were expected to produce errorless translations from the beginning. Little attempt was
made to communicate orally in the target language. Directions and explanations were
always given in the first language.

2. The Audio-Lingual Method

The Audio-Lingual Method, or ALM was a new approach to oral communication that came
of behaviourist B.F. Skinner’s work in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It follows the theory
that language is acquired a) through the process of forming habits and b) the
stimulus/response model. Learning a second language, according to ALM, is throwing away
the habits of the first language and learning a new set of habits for the second.

Audiolingualism was developed to replace grammar-translation. Through the use of this

method, structures of the target language were ordered and dialogues were repeated in an
attempt to develop correct habits of speaking. Mimic and Memorise is a common tool used
with ALM. Students listen and repeat until they memorise. Drills were usually only related
through a common grammar point or syntax and had little to do with anything actually
happening; in other words, they had little direct meaning to the student. Sometimes the
situational scenarios that students had to memorise were useful in that they contained
idioms and expressions and greetings. Rules were presented with this method but not
formally explained to the student, and minimal pairs were often used (sit – seat; yellow –
Jell-o) to overcome habits of pronunciation from the first language. Listening and speaking
skills took precedence over reading and writing with the audio-lingual method; however, in
most classrooms there was little use of creative language and a great deal of attention was
paid to correct pronunciation. Language labs were a big part of this method.

The Direct Method

The Direct Method is more commonly known today as “Berlitz” and was derived from an
earlier method called the “Natural Method”. The Direct Method was natural in the sense that
it made an effort to “immerse” the students in the target language. Teacher monologues,
formal questions and answers, and direct repetition were frequent teaching tools. This
approach is still used in Berlitz schools today. Although there have been slight
modifications, the topic of discussion in classrooms is still the grammar itself; students are
thought to inductively discover the rules of the language. Texts used for the Berlitz method
often move students so quickly through their new language structures that their
internalisation becomes difficult, if not impossible. 
Although these methods vary from one another, they all generally adhered to the same
principle: Grammar is the foundation upon which language should be taught.

An effective communicative approach, however, involves more of a relationship between the

learners themselves, between learners and the teachers, and learners and the language. This
approach requires a greater flexibility on the part of teachers and students to allow the
syllabus and its content to develop in ways that make acquiring the target language more