APPROACHES AND PRINCIPLES

Historical Background

Tracy Terrel, a Spanish teacher, first proposed a new approach to language teaching, which he termed "The Natural Approach", in 1977. This method proposed that a second language is acquired in much the same way as the native language.

Principles of the Natural Approach

Comprehension proceeds production. Learners produce output at their own pace. The course syllabus includes communicative goals and the affective filter should be minimized.

Instructional Practices

Activities used in an class always focus on meaningful communication, rather than structure. Authentic materials are used in order to prepare a learning environment which promotes acquisiton. Students are not expected to speak or produce anything until yhey feel ready to do so.

The role of the Teacher

The teacher works to maintain the flow of the input; directs students' attention toward key items in the input; and uses context, gestures,mfacial expressions to help students understand the input. The teacher creates a relaxed, friendly classroom to lower the affective filter of the students . The teacher must choose a variety of classroom activites and make use of the most effective materials.

The role of the Student

Learners are considered to be language acquirers, rather than language students. Their responsibility is to process comprehensible input to create meaning. They are expected to decide on their own when to speak and not to speak.

The Role of Instructional Materials

The primary purpose of instructional materials is to help the teacher make the input in clasroom activities as meaningful and as communicative as possible. Materials are related to real life, require authentic and meaningful communication among leraners, and appealing, as well as appropriate.

The Grammar Translation Method

Historical Background

In the 18th and 19th centuries, this approach became the prevalent mode of language instruction, particularly in contexts where main objective of language learning was devoloping reading proficency. Because accurate translation through close analysis of grammatical structures was the standard by which success was measured.

Instructional Practices

The method involves lists of vocabulary items to be memorized, translation as the main classroom activity and little place is given to speaking and pronunciation.

Students' and Teachers' Roles

Teacher is an authority figure. There is a little interaction between the student and teacher. The flow of communicaiton is almost entirely from the teacher to the learners.

Instructional Materials

Literary texts to exemplify a particular set of grammatical structures. Comprehension questions and lists of vocabulary items also are given to students.

Histroical Background

In the late 1800s, the emphasis moved from the mechanical use of a language to its communicative function.

Principle of the method

The method is based upon the principles of natural language acquisition. Target language is used as the primary medium of both instruction and classroom communication.

Instructional Practices

The teaching of different skills is integrated, including listening, reading and speaking. The teaching of vocabulary and grammar are also included. The method does not account for explicit grammar instruction, learners are supposed to infer the meaning and usage from the context created by the teacher.

Students' Role

Students are active participants and highly-motivated learners who enjoy practicing the target language and are comfortable in risking while speaking or writing.

Teachers' Rol

Teachers are expected to be fluent in language use and accurate in their pronunciation. Teachers are expected to be alert in detecting learners' errors and skilful at enabling self-correction.

Historical Background

The method originated with Bloomfield, who recognized that the Native American languages were dying out one by one without leaving a trace of their existence; thus, he believed that it was important to document these languages.

Association with approachs

Audo-Oral

Behaviorist

Communication Technologies used in ALM

The method has received strong from developments in information and transportation technology. For example,the telegraph(1835), morse code(1838), the radio(1895), the telephone(1876)...

Principles

The main activities in the method include reading aloud dialogues, repetitions of model sentences, and drilling. In the classroom, lesson hours focus on the correct imitation of the teacher by students. The students are expected to produce the correct output, and attention is paid to correct pronunciation

Advantages and Disadvantages

It is best approach for beginning level foreign language classes.It aims at developing listening and speaking skills.

It is a teacher-centered method.Everything is simply memorized in form.Imitation, repetition and reinforcement turns pupils into parrots who can produce many good utterances but never create anything new or spontaneous.

Roles of the Teacher and Learners

The teacher is the model of language instruction; therefore s/he corrects the mistakes of the students rapidly, without harming their self-reliance, and reinforces correct responses. Students, on the other hand, are completely dependent on the teacher and are placed in the role of imitators.

In the 1970s, Caleb Gattegno formulated a unique language system, which came to be known as the "Silent Way.". He argued that the silence in this approach is used to focus stuedents' atention, elicit their repsonses and encourage them to correct their own errors.

Theory of Silent Way

Learners' responsibility to control and direct their own learning, while teachers are there to represent essential structures in order to raise students' awareness for learning.

Instructional Practices

Students perceive and deduce the specific elements of the language in the situations presented by their teacher. They test, experiment, observe and practice trial and error to confirm their understanding and develop their language skills.

Role of the Teacher

The teacher assumes the role of guide, helping students along their journey of self-awareness and autonomy in language learning.

Role of the Student

The student is an active contributor to the learning by utilizing what they know in order to overcome any learning burdens, focus their attention and engage in exploration of the language.

Materials

These two approach argues that Language learning is not viewed as a mental process, but as a mechanical one.Language is primarily a process of developing appropriate language habits.

Preparing a sample lesson

Preparing a sample lessom

Preparing a sample lesson

Preparing a sample lesson