Methods of English Language Teaching

Name         : Dwi Mufit W (10202244023)

                     Khoirun Nisa (10202244038)

Class           : PBI-5H

                     

Methods of English Language Teaching

There are many methods of teaching languages. For examples, Grammar translation method, direct method, compromise method, audiolingual method, communicative language teaching method, etc. Method is a particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one. However, we just want to explain three of them; grammar translation method, audiolingual method and communicative language teaching method.

1.      GRAMMAR TRANSLATION METHOD

The grammar-translation method of foreign language teaching is one of the most traditional methods, dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was originally used to teach 'dead' languages (and literatures) such as Latin and Greek.

The method is based on the written word and texts are widely in evidence. A typical approach would be to present the rules of a particular item of grammar, illustrate its use by including the item several times in a text, and practise using the item through writing sentences and translating it into the mother tongue. The text is often accompanied by a vocabulary list consisting of new lexical items used in the text together with the mother tongue translation. Accurate use of language items is central to this approach.

Generally speaking, the medium of instruction is the mother tongue, which is used to explain conceptual problems and to discuss the use of a particular grammatical structure. It all sounds rather dull but it can be argued that the Grammar Translation method has over the years had a remarkable success. Millions of people have successfully learnt foreign languages to a high degree of proficiency and, in numerous cases, without any contact whatsoever with native speakers of the language (as was the case in the former Soviet Union, for example).

There are certain types of learner who respond very positively to a grammatical syllabus as it can give them both a set of clear objectives and a clear sense of achievement. Other learners need the security of the mother tongue and the opportunity to relate grammatical structures to mother tongue equivalents. Above all, this type of approach can give learners a basic foundation upon which they can then build their communicative skills.

Advantages and disadvantages

1.    Advantages

·      Reduced teacher stress

Resources for GTMs are easier to come by than other approaches and generally require less teacher involvement. Class activities or learning games are rarely necessary, as students are translating text to another language directly. Teachers who are not fluent in English (but fluent in the other language that the students primarily use) can teach English using this approach, as the emphasis is not on the spoken word but on translations. Communication between student and teacher is reduced with this method, which avoids misunderstandings and prevents language barriers that may occur in a method that focuses on teacher-student communication or verbal language learning.

·      Focus on Grammar, Sentence Structure and Word Meanings

Unlike a verbal approach to language learning, GTM focuses on the application of grammar and correct sentence structure. This is especially helpful in teaching students how to write and read in another language, allowing them to explore interchangeable words and phrases (e.g. different words for different tenses) more effectively than a verbal teaching method. The approach is also easily applied and can be less stressful on students; verbal teaching methods do not describe the application of grammar and sentence structure as effectively as GTM does. Word meanings are also easily learned through direct translation--a foreign word can be compared to the native language quickly. The method of comparing/translation of the learned language with a native language provides reference for students.

2.    Disadvantages

·      Learner Motivation and Participation

The GTM approach involves no learner participation and little teacher-student relationship. Students are required to learn from a textbook and use the same method throughout their learning. Because lessons using GTM are not interactive and engaging for students, they become more likely to lose interest in their subject and less motivated to learn. Furthermore, the method does not require students to participate in any activities or communicate with each other, so they will not learn how to use the language in a real-life conversation or situation and will only know how to translate one language to another.

·      Unnatural and Inaccurate Pronunciation

As children, people generally learn how to speak before they learn how to write and read. In the GTM approach, this natural learning method is reversed. Students are only taught how to read and write the language. This can affect how they learn to speak the learned language. The mere application of grammar and sentence structure cannot adequately prepare them for realistic conversations or verbal communication, as no emphasis is given to spoken language in the GTM approach. Translations may also be inaccurate, as it is not always possible to simply translate one word or phrase accurately to another language (for example, the translation of "computer" in English to Latin is not possible, as there is no Latin word for computer).

2.      COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING ( CLT )

All of the theoretical interests underlie what we can best describe as Communicative Language Teaching.  It is difficult to offer a definition of CLT.

It is a unified but broadly based, theoretically well informed set of tenets about the nature of language and of language learning and teaching. The following six interconnected characteristics as a description of CLT :

1.    Classroom goals are focused on all of the components ( grammatical, discourse, functional, sociolinguistic, and strategic ) of communicative competence

2.    Language techniques are designed to engage learner in the pragmatic, authentic, functional use of language for meaningful purposes. Organizational language forms are not the central focus, but rather aspects of language that enable the learner to accomplish those purposes.

3.    Fluency and accuracy are seen as complementary principles underlying communicative techniques.

4.    Students in a communicative class ultimately have to use the language, productively and receptively, in unrehearsed context outside the classroom.

5.    Student are given opportunities to focus on their own learning process through an understanding of their own styles of learning and through the development of appropriate strategies for autonomous learning.

6.    The role of the teacher is that of facilitator and guide, not an all-knowing bestover of knowledge.

   The characteristics of CLT are:

1.      Meaning is paramount

2.      Dialogues, if used, center around communicative functions and are normally memorized

3.      Contextualization is a basic premise

4.      Language learning is learning to communicate

5.      Effective communication is sought

6.      Drilling is may occur, but peripherally

7.      Comprehensible pronunciation is sought

8.      Any device that helps the learners is accepted varying according to their age, interest, etc

9.      Attempts to communicate are encouraged from the very beginning

10.  Judicious use of native language is accepted where feasible

11.  Translation may be used where student need or benefit from it

12.  Reading and writing can start from the first day, if desired

13.  The target linguistic system is learned through the process of struggling to communicate

14.  Communicative competence is the desired goal

15.  Linguistic variation is a central concept in materials and methods

16.  Sequencing is determined by any consideration of content function or meaning that maintains interest

17.  Teachers help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language

18.  Language is often created by the individual through trial and error

19.  Fluency and acceptable language are the primary goals; accuracy is judged not in the abstract but in context

20.  Student are expected to interact with other people

21.  Teacher cannot know exactly what language the students will use

22.  Intrinsic motivation will spring from an interest in what is being communicated by the language.

A.     Learner-Centered Instruction

   This term applies to curricula as well as to specific techniques. It can be contrasted with teacher-centered, and has received various recent interpretations. Learner-centered instruction includes :

1.    Techniques that focus on or account for learners’ needs, styles, and goals.

2.    Techniques that give some control to the student

3.    Curricula that include the consultation and input of students and that do not presuppose objectives in advance

4.    Technique that enhance a student’s sense of competence and self-worth.

B.      Cooperative and Collaborative Learning

   A curriculum or classroom that is cooperative-and therefore not competitive-usually involves the learner-centered characteristics.

   As students work together in pairs and groups, they share information and come to each others’ aid.

   Cooperative learning does not merely collaboration. To be sure, in a cooperative classroom the students and teachers work together to pursue goals and objectives.

   Cooperative learning is more structures, more prescriptive to teacher about classroom techniques, more directive to students about how to work together in groups.

C.      Interactive Learning

   At the heart of current theories of communicative competence is the essentially interactive nature of communication. 

   Interactive classes will most likely be found :

1.      Doing a significant amount of pair work and group work

2.      Receiving authentic language input in real-world contexts

3.      Producing language for genuine, meaningful communication

4.      Performing classroom tasks that prepare them for actual language use “out there”

5.      Practicing oral communication through the give and take and spontancity of actual conversations

6.      Writing to and for real audiences, not contrived ones.

D.     Whole Language Education

One of the most popular terms currently sweeping through our profession, whole language has been so widely and divergently interpreted that it unfortunately is on the verge of losing the impact that it once had.

Whole language is a label that has been used to describe :

1.      Cooperative learning

2.      Participatory learning

3.      Student-centered learning

4.      Focus on the community of learners

5.      Focus on the social nature of language

6.      Use of authentic, natural language

7.      Meaning-centered language

8.      Holistic assessment techniques in testing

9.      Integration of the “four skills”

There are two interconnected concepts are brought together in whole language :

1.    The wholeness of language implics that language is not the sum of its many dissectible and discrete parts.

2.    Whole language is a perspective “anchored in a vision of an equitable, democratic, diverse society

E.      Content-Based Instruction ( CBI )

   The integration of content learning with language teaching aims.

More specifically, it refers to the concurrent study of language and subject matter, with the form and sequence of language presentation dictated by content material.

F.       Task-based Instruction

   Peter Skehan defines task as an activity in which :

1.      Meaning is primary

2.      There is some communication problem to solve

3.      There is some sort of relationship to comparable real-world activities

4.      Task completion has some priority

5.      The assessment of the task is in terms of outcome.

   A task is really a special form of technique.

   Task-based instruction is not a new method.

   Rather, it puts task at the center of one’s methodological focus.

    Task-based instruction is a perspective within CLT framework that forces you to carefully consider all the techniques that you use in the classroom in terms of a number of important pedagogical purposes.

Specifically, the communicative approach of teaching has the following three advantages:

1.    the interaction between students and teachers. Communicative teaching is becoming increasingly clear feature is the change in the way as the internship, students develop the subject, initiative and become increasingly important. Teacher-student relationship is an interactive, harmonious relationship, rather than the traditional education, the kind of master-servant relationship.

2.    to impart the basic knowledge and ability to skillfully combine the development. Traditional classroom teaching of English in the main body of the expense of home study, only emphasized the teachers on the knowledge of the systematic and integrity, which is a teacher-centered, knowledge-centered from the medieval "scholastic" teaching teaching methods inherited One consequence of the neglect of student ability. The communicative teaching emphasizes the learner's cognitive ability and operational capabilities, which allow the students themselves to think about and express their views, thus trained in real life the ability to use language to communicate.

3.    greatly enhanced the student's interest. Communicative teaching students to participate in, sometimes accompanied by scenes or simulated scenarios, so that students more close to life, the students became the main character, naturally they were interested in the English language, to learn English as a pleasure.

Communicative language teaching aims at the development and improvement of knowledge and skills that will help the speaker to make his/her communication successful and effective. No wonder that the establishment of the basic principles of CLT was a reaction against the previous prevailing language teaching method, which was based on linguistic competence. Chomsky's notion of Universal Grammar stated that language use is biologically encoded in the mind; it is an inherited competence. But one shall wonder at this point: 'What is the use of mere linguistic competence without one not being able to use it in everyday communication?' For the pedagogic procedure that followed this theory put great emphasis on formal and grammatical correctness and accuracy, instead on the most basic purpose of communication: to exchange information; to convey messages and to maintain social relationships. When language learning was an exclusively academic privilege and obsession in the past it was enough to concentrate only on structural correctness. But in the 21st century world, language teaching is no longer a luxury but a simple need. As Savignon points out "with the emergence of English as a global language, and with technological innovation and a growing need for learner autonomy challenging language teaching programs worldwide" the improvement and flourishing of a new, more effective method is inescapable (2007, p. 208).

3.     AUDIOLINGUAL METHOD

The Audiolingual Method was developed in the U.S. during the Second World War. At that time, the U.S. government found it a great necessity to set up a special language-training program to supply the war with language personnel. Therefore, the government commissioned American universities to develop foreign language program for military personnel. Thus the Army Specialized Training Programme (ASTP) was established in 1942.The objectives of the army programme were for students to attain conversational proficiency in a variety of foreign languages. The method used was known as the “informant method ”, since it used a native speakers of the language, the informant , and a linguist. The informant served as a source of language for imitation, and the linguist supervised the learning experience. The intensive system adopted by the army achieved excellent results.

     Linguists and applied linguists during this period were becoming increasingly involved in the teaching of English as a foreign language. In 1941 the first English Language institute in the U.S. was established to in the University of Michigan. The director of the institute was Charles Fries, who applied the principles of structural linguists to language teaching. The result is an approach which advocated aural training first, then pronunciation training, followed by speaking, reading and writing.

     The emergence of the Audiolingual Method resulted from the increased attention to foreign language teaching in the U.S. towards the end of the 1950s.The need for a radical change and rethinking of foreign language teaching methodology made language teaching specialists set about developing a method that was applicable to conditions in U.S. college and university classrooms. They drew on the earlier experience of the army programmes and the Aural-Oral or structural Approach developed by Fries and his colleagues, adding insights taken from behaviorist psychology. This combination of structural linguistic theory, aural-oral procedures, and behaviourist psychology led to the Audiolingual Method, which was widely adopted for teaching foreign languages in North American colleges and universities.

This method of Language Learning is also called the Aural-Oral Method. This method is said to result in rapid acquisition of speaking and listening skills. The audiolingual method drills students in the use of grammatical sentence patterns. When this method was developed it was thought that the way to acquire the sentence patterns of the second language was through conditioning or helping learners to respond correctly to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement.

The Audiolingual Method is based on the following principles:

• Speaking and listening competence preceded reading and writing competence.
• Use of German is highly discouraged in the classroom.
• The development of language skills is a matter of habit formulation.
• Students practice particular patterns of language through structured dialogue and drill until response is automatic.
• Structured patterns in language are taught using repetitive drills.
• The emphasis is on having students produce error free utterances.
• This method of language learning supports kinesthetic learning styles.
• Only everyday vocabulary and sentences are taught. Concrete vocabulary is taught through demonstration, objects, and pictures. Abstract vocabulary is taught through association of ideas.
• The printed word must be kept away from the second language learner as long as possible.