Magistère Lecture TEFL Lecture 

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Teaching Methods and Approaches

Teaching and learning a foreign language has always been the focal point for so
many researchers. Most of them claimed that second language teaching entails the use of both
traditional methods and instructional techniques that are unique to the study of language
learning. Indeed, the history of second/ or foreign language learning offers a wide range of
language learning approaches, methods and technique that are considered as being useful and
efficient. Based on the teaching experiences of educators around the world, different
techniques should be deployed depending on the instructional purpose, the subject matter and
the competency of students and their enthusiasm. Concentrating and using only one approach
has been found to be glossily inadequate while a rich combination of approach results in the
most favorable learning outcomes. From these standpoints, one of the prime myriad questions
that are underscored: which approach is more suitable, effective and that should be
applied in a foreign language class?

To start with, Language teachers have constantly been in an endless discussion about
which language teaching method should be used in class and that increases interaction and
students’ speech talk. Another issue of discussion is if a certain language methods and
approaches are superior to the others.

In other words, for many years, scholars’ deep concern was to introduce the best
approach/ method toward English language teaching in order to reach successful learning. “The
Grammar- Translation Method” was the first method presented. This latter was originally
used to teach Latin and Greek and started to be known as “the classical method”. It has been
believed that fruitful language learning could be achieved through the endless and fast
translation of sentences from the “Latin or Greek” into “English” and vice versa.

That is, lessons were based on translating statements and extracting grammatical
rules with no relation to actual communication. Besides, the main goal of the GTM was to
learn a language in order to read its literature and to benefit from its mental discipline and
intellectual development that result from foreign language study.

However, this method was highly criticized later. Learners claimed that although
they have been learning language for many years, they still could not speak the language.
Then, “The Direct Method” became very popular when the GTM was not found effective in
preparing students to use the target language communicatively. It aims at teaching the
language as the target one is learnt.
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Contrary to the GTM, no translation but the use of target language is allowed in
class. the learner should be actively involved in using the language in realistic everyday
situation, students are encouraged to think in the target language, first speaking is taught
followed by the other skills, the teacher should demonstrate through the use of visual aids not
explain or translate.

Then, in the 1960s,The outbreak of world War II heightened the need for Americans
to become orally proficient in the languages of their allies and enemies alike; the fact that led
to introduction of the “the Army Method” that became known latter as the “Audio –Lingual
Method” by the American linguists “Mouton William”.

That is, lessons usually begun with dialogues to be recited and memorized, then,
specific grammatical patterns are selected and reinforced. Repetition, substitution,
transformation and translation were the order of the day. The main principal of this method
was identified in “learn in a month” and syllabus that promise” you listen, you repeat then you
will understand”. Speaking and listening competence preceded reading and writing skills. Yet,
unfortunately, most of students could not transform these dialogues into real life experiences.

After that, in the early 1970s, Cognitive Approach was of great interest and it was
applied to language teaching. In this approach, learners were more actively responsible for
their own learning and hypothesizing the formulas in order to discover the rules of the target
language. Meanwhile, “The Silent Way” developed by “Caleb Gattegno” (1976) shares
certain principles of the Cognitive Approach. Its main objective is to make student more
independent language learners. The teacher’s role is to draw the learners' attention to the way
that they are going about the act of learning. Then, facilitates the students' discoveries and
helps the students to gain insight into the functioning of the language.

On the same stream, “De-suggestopedia” can be defined as the application of the

study of suggestion to pedagogy; it helps students eliminate the feeling that they cannot be
successful and, thus, overcome the barriers to learning. With classical music in the
background and with students sitting in comfortable seats: vocabulary, readings, role-plays,
and drama were presented, this way students became suggestible. Still, Suggestopedia
suffered from a major setback; evidence shows that most classrooms lack such facilities.

The decade of the 1970s was a chaotic but remarkably fruitful era during which L2
learning and teaching increasingly recognized a great importance; hence giving birth to
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affectively based and favored teaching methods that is: the community language learning
method (CLL) and Total Physical Response (TRP).

Community language learning (CLL) was primarily designed for monolingual

conversation classes where the teacher-counsell or would be able to speak the learners' L1.
That is, one of the key ideas is that it is the students who determine what is to be learned, so
that the role of the teacher is that of a facilitator and support. This method is based on
establishing interpersonal relationships between the teacher and students to facilitate learning.
The thought is that learning can come about only from social interaction. It's a method that is
based on English for communication and is extremely learner-focused. Although each course
is unique and student-dictated, there are certain criteria that should be applied to all CLL
classrooms, namely a focus on fluency in the early stages, an undercurrent of accuracy
throughout the course and learner empowerment as the main focus.

To put is simple, CLL is a teaching method which encompasses all four skills while
simultaneously revealing learners' styles which are more or less analytical in their approach to
language learning. All of which raises our awareness as a teacher and that of our students.
Yet, there are clearly some major problems with CLL; it can only be done with small numbers
of students who have to share a single mother tongue, and the teacher has to be well trained
and highly proficient in the target language and that of the students. The teacher also has to
have enormous reserves of energy – both physical and psychic.

  Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the
coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical (motor)
activity. Developed by James Asher, a professor at California, it includes developmental
psychology, learning theory, and humanistic pedagogy, as well as on language teaching
procedures.

In other words, the simplest definition of this method is that it combines information
and skills through the use of a sensory system. This combination allows the student to
assimilate information and skills at a rapid rate. As a result, this success leads to a high degree
of motivation. Its basic aim is understanding the spoken language before developing the
speaking skill. This way, the student is not forced to speak, but be given enough time to feel
comfortable and confident in understanding and producing the utterances.

On the other hand, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)has also been one of
the worldwide used approaches. It places great emphasis on helping students use the target
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language in a variety of contexts accentuates on learning the four language skills. As Vardar
(1998) said: “language is a means of communication and therefore it should be handled as a
social phenomenon.” In this context, it has been believed that teaching these four skills is of
great importance since each one completes the other. This means that successful learning of a
foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners have developed their
communicative competence, which can be defined as the ability to apply knowledge of both
formal and sociolinguistic aspects of a language with acceptable proficiency to communicate.

Broadly, the CLT approach 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. In short, being able to communicate needs more than
linguistic competence; it requires communicative competence; knowing when and how to say
what to whom.

Moreover, other strategies and approaches toward language teaching were and still
are used by teachers, such as: Co-Operative learning strategy. It is a successful teaching
strategy in which small teams with different levels of ability, use a variety of learning
activities to improve their understanding of a subject. This strategy is considered as being
effective in terms of helping students to be more responsible for their own learning process as
well as helping each other to better learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.

Furthermore, Task Based approach and Content Based approach are other favored
and fruitful approaches. Both of these approaches have some common principal; they
emphasize on group interaction to learn communication. Group work is the most dominant
activity; the teacher focuses on the task and the content and how could it be easier for learners
to understand.

After all, scholars had presented a tremendous number of methods and approaches,
and yet, still the question is: How does a teacher know which method is best? Although, there
are many approaches that share some common roads, but it is still quite difficult to select the
appropriate and suitable one to apply in teaching.

In other words, a particular method cannot always please and be successful for
everyone; one method that works well with a certain students may not be suitable for some
others. It is for this reason that some argue there is no right method for everyone. The salient
thing is that each teacher should always bear in mind that each method has its own strengths
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and weaknesses. And so in the end, one has to well make his choice and always select what is
good in those approaches, then, try to apply them according to the present situation. This is
why “Eclecticism” seems to be the more fitting approach that could be applied in such cases.

To be more explicit, “The Eclectic approach” fits with the values, experience, and
views as being appropriate to students and context. Generally, before a teacher puts one
method into practice, he always needs to choose from among methods to create their own
blend, and to consider his/her student’s needs, the conditions of instructions, and the broader
setting where learning will take place. Thus, they are creating their own method. In brief, in
the light of the views above, eclecticism can be said to be the best solution to meet the various
needs of the students.

To conclude with, teachers always need to try new practices in order to continually
search for the best method for who they are, who their students are, and the conditions and
context of their teaching. Language teaching methods can be categorized as either Indirect
Methods or Direct Methods. Indirect methods are commonly used in assessing “receptive
skills”(reading, listening, vocabulary or grammar) and these methods work well especially in
large classes. Direct Methods are, on the other hand, used in assessing productive skills
(writing or speaking) and provides a better picture of what students can do with the languages.
It is for these reasons that teachers should know how to well use both of the direct/indirect
methods, to be especially “eclectic” and to give students to practice their four language skills.
After all, this is the purpose of teaching; to lead students to master the language and develop
their several competences.