Traditional and contemporary methods in English language teaching.

Nini Yuliana García Cuenca

Corporación Universitaria del caribe CECAR

Course: Didactic of English Language

Teacher: Julián Hernandez Contreras

December 7, 2023
 TRADITIONAL AND CONTEMPORARY METHODS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEACHING.

Throughout history in the field of education, English language teaching has undergone
major transformations and teaching methods are no exception, since they have varied
according to the development and evolution of society and science, in this sense, these have
been used and are still used today by teachers of English in the classroom, in order to
implement improvements to didactics, as educational institutions along with teachers today are
continually facing the challenge of implementing an effective teaching methodology to ensure
a high quality English language acquisition, i.e., effective learning, Consequently, there are
traditional teaching methods that have emphasized and prioritized specific skills through
passive learning based on translation and parallel methods and approaches that have
complemented and encompassed a much broader and more complete vision of English
language teaching, in other words, contemporary methods with a communicative approach
based on the development of integrated skills placing the student as an active and protagonist
in their own learning process.

According to the above, traditional teaching methods such as the grammatical

translation method mainly emphasizes and concentrates on the study of grammatical rules, that
is, this method, one of the oldest and most conventional, considers viable the learning of the
English language through the memorization of vocabulary and at the same time the translation
of texts, in this sense, it emphasizes the development of reading and reading and writing skills,
Theoretically, according to Richards (1998), this method consists of teaching a second
language through the first language. From this perspective, the student's mother tongue
provides all the information necessary to construct a sentence or understand a text. At the same
time, a contemporary method that shows that the one described above does not achieve by
itself the objective that the student learns to communicate in all senses is the communicative
method, this alludes to the fact that the solution consists of a mixture of different components
that cover all aspects of communication, consequently it is about implementing a method that
incorporates activities, texts, dialogues and exercises, in other words that covers all areas in
which communication takes place, the communicative method has as its main objective that
students acquire the ability to communicate by immersing them in real life situations
prioritizing the development of communicative fluency through interaction and simulating
reality within the classroom (Luna, Ortiz and Rey-Rivas 2014), in this sense, an evaluation is
incorporated where the language is applied directly in real practices instead of evaluating
grammatical knowledge.

Adding to the above, in the traditional grammar-translation method, listening and oral
comprehension are not priority objectives and verbal interaction is replaced by reading texts
aloud ( Mariscal, 2014), and the student plays a passive role in their learning giving prominence
to the teacher as the central axis, while the communicative method lacks a grammatical
approach as it does not prioritize grammatical correction and vocabulary acquisition as a
fundamental part of learning the English language.

Now, the "direct" or "natural" method is a conventional method that seeks to immerse
the student in the English language using only this language in the classroom (Berlitz
Corporate 2018). This method is directed towards learning based on the development of oral
and communicative skills that respond to its main objective, including real and practical
situations so that the student can contextualize learning, since listening and conversation are
key aspects in this teaching method, simultaneously, The content-based instruction method is
a contemporary method that is consolidated by seeking to integrate the language and thus
ensure that the student learns while also immersed in academic subjects, in this sense, this
method allows the transversalization of the English language with other areas of knowledge so
that the student can develop optimally, Stryker and Leaver (1987), point out that CBI is part of
what is considered a new paradigm in the teaching-learning process.

In addition to the above, the direct or natural method refers to the fact that students
should avoid using the mother tongue and translate from it, it minimizes the importance of
vocabulary acquisition; from this perspective, it seeks that students learn to communicate by
associating concepts directly with the language instead of translating, on the contrary the
content-based instruction method may at times allow explicit translation so that the student
achieves understanding of abstract content.

In conclusion, teaching methods have contributed significantly to the field of education,

in this sense, a method is not an end in itself, but rather it is a means to achieve the proposed
ends, no doubt some can be better suited than others, that is, this depends largely on the learning
style of students, the educational context, In other words, this depends largely on the learning
style of the students, the educational context, and the specific learning goals, in other words,
some traditional methods may be effective for some, while some contemporary teaching
methods may be effective for others, it is important to note that they should be adapted
according to the needs of students to facilitate English language learning in a comprehensive
manner, covering all skills.
 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES

Luna, A., Ortiz, F., & Rey-Rivas, P. (2014). El enfoque comunicativo inmerso en el
aprendizaje del idioma Inglés en Ciencia de la Computación. Santiago 134, 548-558

Berlitz Corporativo. (7 de Enero de 2018). Berlitz Corporativo. Obtenido de Sitio Web

Berlitz Corporativo: https://www.berlitz.com.uy/corporativo/

Richards, J.C. y Rodgers, T.S. (1998). Enfoques y métodos en la enseñanza de idiomas

Colección Cambridge de Didáctica de Lenguas. Madrid: Cambridge University Press

Stryker, S. & Leaver, B. (1997). Content-Based In-struction in Foreign Language

Education. Wash-ington, DC: Georgetown University Press